9 6 



FLOWERS OF LAKES, RIVERS, ETC. 



size of the plant, numerous, in flat corymbose heads, terminal and 

 axillary. The 100 ray florets in a single row are much longer than 

 those in the disk, which are complete and 600 in number. The 

 involucral scales or phyllaries are bristle -like. The fruit is angular, 

 the pappus is hairy, and the outer pappus is minutely scalloped and 



dirty-white. 



The stems are usually 18 in. high. The flowers are late, opening 

 in August and continuing through September onward. Fleabane is a 

 herbaceous perennial increased by division. 



There are more than 600 florets in the disk containing both stamens 



and pistil, the tube being 



4 mm. long, narrow below, 

 enlarged at the mouth, with 



5 triangular teeth. The 

 honey can be reached by 

 insects with a moderately- 

 sized proboscis. The stigm- 

 atic lobes project beyond 

 the cylinder, and spread 

 horizontally and close above 

 the corolla, where the pollen 

 lies in the first stage. Many 

 florets can be pollinated at 

 one visit. The style is 

 covered with stigmatic 

 papillae on the inside, and 



the upper part (one-third) with hairs (directed obliquely upwards along 

 the edges of the triangular valves of the upper end of the anther 

 cylinder), which are unicellular, longer and thicker than the sweeping 

 hairs of the style, and serve to hold the pollen swept out of the anther 

 cylinder. The ray florets are nearly 100 in number, and possess a 

 pistil only, exactly like that of the disk florets. They do not con- 

 tain pollen and clo not set seeds. They have an outer golden lobe 

 5-7 mm., with a tube 2-3, and the style protrudes as in the disk with 

 sweeping hairs. The visitors belong to Hymenoptera, Heriades, 

 Halictus; Diptera, Eristalis, Melithreptes; Lepidoptera, Polyommatus, 

 Lyccena, Small Skipper, Hesperia tha^lmas\ Coleoptera, Cassida. Such 

 flowers having both female and complete florets are termed gyno- 

 moncecious. 



The pappus is short and unequal, but the achenes by its means are 

 entirely adapted for dispersal by the wind. 



Photo. Dr. Somcrville Hastings 



Fleabane (Pulicaria dysen/ericn, Gray) 



