244 A COMPOSITE FAMILY 



A little space before the lane merges in open 

 fields is the Throne Room itself, where, until frost 

 snuffs the lights and locks the door, Giant Wild 

 Sunflower is king, and reigns majestically, holding 

 his head high above his tallest subject as he watches 

 his progeny crowding every bit of hospitable ground 

 far and wide throughout the meadows, even ven- 

 turing to tiptoe into the brackish overflow that 

 quickens the Sea Gardens. 



For some strange, but doubtless scientific reason, 

 of recent date, the tribe of the Composite, in being 

 given an English name, is by Britton and Brown 

 called the Thistle Family. Why Thistle, instead of 

 Aster, Goldenrod the most widely distributed of the 

 tribe or, better yet, Sunflower, the tallest and most 

 conspicuous of the group, I cannot fathom. In 

 England the race is called the Asterworts; yet, after 

 all, the direct translation, Composites, under which 

 it figured in Gray's familiar botany, is the best, 

 favoring, as it does, no one household, and aptly 

 describing this class of plants where numerous in- 

 dividual blossoms are colonized and gathered into a 

 head, making what, to the casual observer, appears 

 to be one single flower. 



Strong with the power of cooperation, the 

 Composites have a perpetual representation at the 



