SOME FLORAL ADVERTISEMENTS 



existing in a great number of entirely different 

 families of plants. 



In the Umbellate family the feature is some- 

 times carried beyond the stage of enlarged petals ; 

 the outer flowers themselves often being of a 

 larger size. The frontispiece to this volume shows 

 a very striking development of this order belong- 

 ing to quite a different famity. The Guelder Rose 

 (Viburnum Opuhis), which belongs to the Honey- 

 suckle family, has, like the wild angelica, crowded 

 together its insignificant flowers, but it has carried 

 the principle of utilising the outer whorl for adver- 

 tising purposes to a much greater perfection. It 

 has not only enlarged the outer flowers, but has 

 sacrificed their stamens and ovaries to that end ; 

 the flowers are now neuter blossoms, bearing 

 neither stamens nor stigmas, and are used entirely 

 for display, to advertise the insignificant seed-bear- 

 ing flowers within the group. How effectively 

 they perform their function the frontispiece well 

 shows. 



It will be remembered that in the crowded 

 head of florets of the wild camomile the outer 

 ones showed a one-sided development of their 

 petal tubes at the expense of their stamens. Now 

 in some other members of the same Composite 

 family further specialisation in that direction has 

 gone on until the same result has been attained as 

 in the guelder rose. 



In the common Cornflower (Centaxirea Cya7ius), 

 (Fig, 114, Plate 82), the outer florets of the head 

 consist of large and showy neuter blossoms, which 



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