Order 64. Composite^. 149 



The cinchonas, now much cultivated in India, belong to a 

 tribe of which no other species is found in W. India. The 

 discovery of the virtues of Peruvian bark, as it was formerly 

 called, was, according to Dr. Darwin, accidental : trees cut 

 down for other purposes having impregnated the water into 

 which they fell Avith quinine, and this having cured of fever 

 some workmen who drank the water. 



ORDER 64. COMPOSITE. Composites. 



Herbs or shrubs, leaves generally alternate (except in tribe 

 5), without stipules, flowers composed of many small florets 

 inserted on a broad receptacle, which is often furnished with 

 chaffy scales (paleas), and surrounded by an involucre of many 

 bracts often in several series. 



Description of florets. Calyx superior, but curiously modi- 

 fied, as it adheres closely to the ovary and is indistinguishable 

 from it (except Echinops) ; the limb if present composed of 

 bristles or hairs (pappus), corolla either tubular with 4 or o 

 lobes or strap-shaped (ligulate); stamens as many as the corolla 

 lobes, within the tube, anthers generally cohering, style slender 

 and bifid, fruit an achene, crowned by the pappus, if there is one. 



This is the largest of all the orders, containing, it is said, one 

 tenth of all the flowering plants known, and is also the most natural, 

 so that one can seldom mistake a species of this order for anything 

 else. 



The description given above needs some explanation. If 

 what is commonly called a flower in this order be picked to 

 pieces, it proves to be made up of a number of many small 

 flowers (florets), each complete in itself. Hooker has therefore 

 given up the old mode of description, given above, for one 

 more technically correct, and so describes a daisy or sun-flower 1 

 as a head of flowers, and each floret as a flower, and so through- 

 out the order. But I have retained the old method of de- 

 scription as easier for those who are not scientific. 



The shape of the flowers is either rayed, i.e. having a centre 

 of erect tubular florets, and a margin of strap-shaped florets, all 

 turning outwards (e.g. the sun-flower), or disciform, having a 

 more or less round and flat top of erect florets without any 

 margin (eg. the groundsels in England, and Blumeas in India). 

 Unfortunately for the classification flowers of both shapes 

 occur in most of the tribes, and even in many genera. 



1 A flower of Guizotia, Kdlatil, or of Zinnia, is an equally good example. 



