THE FLORAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 341 



'examination a plant belonging to the well-defined natural order or 

 tribe, the Composite, or compound flowers, of which the French 

 marigold (Tagetes patula) may be taken as a common and instruc- 

 tive example. It will be observed that within the dark green cup 

 which forms the exterior whorl (involucrum) of the flower-head, 

 there are several florets having a broad yellow strap-shaped expan- 

 sion striped with brown, then constituting what are called the ray 

 of the flower-head. The little tube in which each terminates, en- 

 closes a slender forked body, the style, which is well seen with the 

 microscope, as are also the minute hairs {calyx) that encircle the 

 base of the tube. But the parts of the flower-head more particu- 

 larly to be noticed, are the florets which are within the ray, and 

 which are termed collectively the disk. Upon removing one of 

 these florets, we observe the two beautiful stigmas, or terminations 

 of a central column or style, this style being enclosed in a little 

 cylinder, which our microscope shows to be formed of five oblong 

 bodies or anthers, united together by their edges, and which contain 

 the fertilizing granules called pollen. The style arises from the 

 summit of an oblong capsule termed the ovary, in which, upon open- 

 ing it, we find a single ovule or young seed, and crowning the 

 ovary are a few serrated hairs or scales resembling those of the ray 

 florets. 



In many of the plants of the same order this appendage or 

 pappus is an extremely beautiful microscopic object. That of the 

 dandelion is well known, and in the pretty Catananche ccerulea it 

 will be found equally interesting. In the genus Valeriana, the 

 hairs composing the pappus are at first rolled inwards, but as the 

 seed ripens they expand and assist in wafting the fruit. The 

 common annual Kavlfussia amelloid.es has the pappus of the ray 

 florets so divided as to present the appearance of a fringe. The 

 anthers of many plants are highly attractive, both from the varia- 

 tions of their forms, and the different modes in which they open to 

 allow the pollen to escape. In the Oleander the anther terminates 

 at its apex in a long feathery prolongation, and is divided at its 

 base into two lobes, which diverge so as to present an arrow-like 

 •appearance. In Oaultheria procumbens, a North American shrub, 

 •each of the pointed anther lobes is divided into two horns, the entire 

 anther thus having a four-forked aspect. Erythroea aggregata, a 

 pretty little plant of the Gentian family, presents us with a curious 

 ■example of the twisted anther ; in Gommelina cadestis, the three 

 barren stamens have a highly singular form, differing greatly from 

 the fertile ones ; and in Bhoxia, a North American genus of melasto- 

 maceous plants, one or two species of which are sometimes found in 

 English gardens, the anthers are bent in a very unusual manner, 

 and have a small spur at their base. 



In the genus Tupa, formerly included in Lobelia, the anthers are 

 densely hairy, and the filament's of a considerable number of plants, 

 among which we may mention Salpiglossis and Erythrolana con- 

 spicua, the scarlet Mexican thistle, are also more or less pubescent, 

 -and present a beautiful appearance when viewed through the Stun- 

 nope lens. In the majority of cases the pollen is discharged by 



November. 



