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If you pull to pieces a dandelion head, you will find 
a quantity of little yellow straps. [ach little strap is a 
perfect flower. 
Now, if you had been asked for the building plan of 
the dandelion, you would have looked for the calyx, and 
you would have thought you had found it in the green 
cup which holds the yellow straps. 
And when you were looking for the corolla, perhaps 
you would have said, ‘Well, all these yellow things 
must be the flower leaves of the corolla.” 
But when you began your hunt for stamens and 
pistils, you would have been badly puzzled; and no 
wonder, for these are hidden away inside the yellow 
straps, the tiny flowers of the dandelion. 
So remember that when you cannot find the stamens 
and pistils within what you take to be the single flower, 
you will do well to stop and ask yourself, ‘Can this be 
one of the plants which plays tricks, and puts a lot of 
little flowers together in such a way as to make us think 
that they are one big flower ?”’ 
THE LARGEST: PLANT. FAMILY 2iy 
THE-WORED 
HE dandelion belongs to the largest plant family in 
the world. All the members of this family have 
the dandelion trick of bunching together a quantity of 
little flowers. From this habit the family takes its 
name. It is called the “Composite” family, because with 
