249 
it, that which looks like one flower is composed of many 
flowers. 
To this great family belong some of the flowers which 
you know best; and if you are not to be fooled again 
and again, you must learn to tell by its blossoms whether 
a plant is a member of the Composite family. This 
will not be difficult if you will be patient, and pull to 
pieces a few of the flower heads which I am going to 
describe, and examine carefully the 
building plan used by the separate 
flowers. 
Fig. 265 shows you the field daisy. 
This pretty flower is an old friend; and AN 
many of you know that its beauty is no com- 
fort to the farmer, who finds it a sign of poor soil, \ 
and a nuisance, and does his best to el tid-ol at. 
As you know, the central part of the daisy is 
bright yellow, and the narrow leaves which stand FIG. 265 
out in a circle around its yellow center are pure white. 
Now, if I had asked you some time ago for the build- 
ing plan of the daisy, I think you would have told me 
that the arrangement of little green leaves underneath 
the flower head made up the calyx, and naturally you 
would have believed the white leaves above to have 
formed the corolla; and the chances are that the yellow 
center would have seemed to be a quantity of stamens. 
As for the seed holders, you might have said, “Oh, 
well! I suppose they are hidden away somewhere 
among all these stamens.”’ 
It would not have been at all strange or stupid if you 
had answered my question in this way. 
