178 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
(Cannabis), to which circumstance it owes part of 
its names. The pale- purple flowers are massed 
in heads that resemble the spreading 
clusters of the umbel-bearers, but if we 
gather one of these masses we shall find 
it is built up on an entirely different plan. 
Taking off one of the main flower-stalks 
above the highest of the compound leaves, 
we find that at its next joint there is a 
pair of leafy bracts above which are 
several branches, each with a smaller pair 
of bracts, from which again there are 
five or six branches, but this time they 
end in a whorl of about ten overlapping 
bracts, forming an involucre to four or 
Hemp Agrimony five tubular flowers which stand on a 
common flat receptacle. | 
Now, each of these ultimate clusters form what 
is known as a flower-head or composite flower, and 
the individual blossoms are termed in this family 
florets. If we separate one of these florets, we find it 
is of tubular form, with the mouth cut into five 
pointed lobes which bend outwards. Cutting away 
one side of the tube to reveal the internal arrange- 
ments, we find five stamens springing from the 
walls of the tube, the filaments separate, but the 
anthers are joined together by their sides, so that 
they form a tube into which the upper end of the 
style extends. The upper part of the style really 
consists of two half-round stigmatic arms which are 
now pressed closely together, their entire surface 
covered with downy points. At present it serves as 
a plug to the staminal tube, and as the anthers 
