FLOWERS. 



[SECTION 8. 



to the base, and outspread. The nature of such a corolla (and of the sta- 

 mens also, to be explained in the next section) is illustrated by the flower 

 of a Lobelia, Fig. 285. 



268. In Asters, Daisies, Sunflower, Coreopsis (Fig. 268), and the like, 

 only the marginal (or Ray) corollas are ligulate ; the rest (those of the 



Disk) are regularly gamopetalous, 

 tubular, and five-lobed at summit ; 

 ' but they are small and individually 

 inconspicuous, only the ray-fowers 

 iking a show. In fact, those of 

 Coreopsis and of Sunflower are 

 simply for show, these ray -flowers 

 being not only sterile, but neutral, 

 that is, having neither stamens 

 nor pistil. But in Asters, Daisies, 

 Golden-rods, and the like, these ray-flowers are pistillate and fertile, serving 



therefore for seed-bearing as well as for show. Let it not be supposed thax 

 the show is useless. See Section XIII. 



269. Adnation, or Consolidation, is the union of the members of parts 

 belonging to different circles of the flower (256). It is of course under- 

 stood that in this (as likewise in coalescence) the parts are not formed and 

 then conjoined, but are produced in union. They are born united, as the 

 term adnate implies. To illustrate this kind of union, take the accompany 

 ing series of flowers (Fig. 270-274), shown in vertical section. In the 

 first, Fig. 270, Flax-flower, there is no adnation; sepals, petals, and sta- 

 mens, are free as well as distinct, being separately borne on the receptacle, 

 3ne circle within or above the next j only the five pistils have their ovaries 

 coalescent. In Fig. 271, a Cherry flower, the petals and stamens are borne 

 on the throat of the calyx-tube ; that is, the sepals are coalescent into a cup, 

 and the petals and stamens are adnate to the inner face of this ; in other 



Fio. 268. Head of flowers of a Coreopsis, divided lengthwise. 



FIG. 269. A slice of the preceding more enlarged, with one tubular perfect flower 

 (a) left standing on the receptacle, with its bractlet or chaff (i), one ligulate and 

 neutral ray-flower (cc\ and part of another; dd, section of bracts or leaves of th 

 involucre. 



