170 



SAGACITY AND MORALITY OF PLANTS. 



are the highest cerebrated of all insects, just as 

 composite flowers are acknowledged to be the most 



wonderfully or- 

 d^ I //^^^>7 ganised among 



plants. Their 

 smallness has 

 conduced to 

 their social 

 habits, as may 

 have been the 

 case with all 



Fig. 67.— Section of Daisy; r, ray -florets (barren); c^, u- _| ^r :^f]p,r 

 tubular florets; ^k, receptacle; tv, segments of ^m*-l^ ^'^ lilllUl- 



^'^^°^^^'^- escences. The 



necessity for banding together has eventually evolved 

 altruism^ or the requisition for some members to 

 live for the benefit of others. In a beehive or an 

 ant's nest the sexless workers are the analogues of 

 the barren " ray "-florets of the Daisy and the Sun- 

 flower. 



The Knapweeds {CentaiLvca nigra^ C. cy antes, 

 etc.) have not advanced so far on the path of speci- 

 alisation of the external florets as the Daisy and 

 Chrysanthemum, whilst the Dandelion and Chicory 

 (representatives of the iigtdijioral division of Com- 

 positae) have proceeded a stage farther. The outer 

 florets of the Knapweeds are still tubular, exactly 

 like their fertile brethren, except being larger, and 

 barren. Occasionally we get specimens of wild field 

 Daisies possessing white tnbed ray-florets — a reversion 



