no SAGA CITY AND MORA LIT Y OF PLANTS. 



on the earth's surface. Arctic, antarctic, tropical, and 

 equatorial regions alike include them among their 

 chief plants ; the Compositce grow in arid regions 

 like the Cape Bush (where they vindicate their vital- 

 ity by blossoming perhaps in their very brightest and 

 loveliest tints as " Everlastings ") ; on the dank tropi- 

 cal hillsides of Brazil ; in salt marshes, bogs, rich 

 alluvial soils, barren rocks, desert, and plain. They 

 assume both herbaceous and woody or arborescent 

 forms as occasion requires. No place is too hot or 

 cold, high or low, wet or dry, for the species of this 

 elastic order. They are the " Scotchmen " among 

 the vegetable world — found everywhere, and m.aking 

 a good honest living wherever found ! 



Of course, all the members of the Compositce do 

 not resort to wind-dispersion ; but it is remarkable 

 that it should be so largely employed by them. As 

 has already been stated, the mechanism used for the 

 purpose is the pappus, or " clock," best known in 

 the Dandelion. This structure is well illustrated by 

 a child's shuttlecock. In the Goat's-beard {Trago- 

 pogon p7'atensis, etc.) the rounded and undisturbed 

 " clock " is a most beautiful object. Everybody is 

 acquainted with it in the Dandelion and Thistles. 

 The slightest breeze lifts one of the feathery pappi 

 and carries it away, with its fruit dry and light for 

 the purpose hanging beneath, and balancing it like 

 the car of a balloon. This structure has been 

 evidently evolved from several standpoints, as the 



