FLOWERS OF THE SUN 221 



mon Ox-eye Daisy, Sunflowers, Goldenrods, Iron- 

 weeds, and Asters are typical. 



Owing to the strength of cooperation and to 

 vigorous constitutions, the composites are an all- 

 powerful race, and their sway rounds out the year 

 itself, for may not the Dandelion be found in 

 some sheltered, sunny nook from New Year until 

 Christmas ? The composites are almost as much 

 fixtures in the landscape as the trees, so surely 

 can we count on seeing them follow each other 

 in a stolid procession the season through. The 

 very fact of their massiveness leads us to regard 

 them more as pigments, of rich color value in the 

 landscape, than as individual flowers of personal 

 and lovable attributes. But then, it is always thus: 

 massed effort invariably kills individuality. So we 

 must let the composite battalion march by itself, 

 if we wish to be unconfused, and single out and 

 identify the more winning though less numerous 

 flowers of the sun. 



Nearly all flowers flourish better in the open, 

 or in sheltered rather than in deeply -shaded situa- 

 tions, the few exceptions being leaf-mold plants 

 with rootstocks that creep close to the surface. 

 Almost all of these plants might also live in the 

 open if the supply of moisture was sufficient. By 



