64 COMMON CANADIAN WILT) PLANTS. 



corolla. Bracts among the flowers terminating in a long awn. 

 Leaves generally connate. Roadsides and ditches. Rather com- 

 mon in the Niagara district, but found also elsewhere. 



ORDER XLIX. COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



Flowers in a dense head on a common receptacle, and sur- 

 rounded by an involucre. Calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, its 

 limb either obsolete or forming a pappus of few or many bristles 

 or chaffy scales. Corolla either tubular or with one side much 

 prolonged (strap-shaped or ligulate). Stamens usually 5, on the 

 tube of the corolla, their anthers united (syngenesious). Style 

 2-cleft. (See Part I., sections 60-62, for examination of a typical 

 flower. ) 



The heads of flowers present some variety of structure. All 

 the flowers of a head may be tubular ; or only the central ones or 

 disk-Jlowei-s, as ihey are then called, may be tubular, whilst 

 those around the margin, then known as ray-flowery are ligulate 

 or strap-shaped. Or again, all the flowers may be strap-shaped. 

 It is not unusual also to find a mixture of perfect and imperfect 

 flowers in the same head. 



The bracts which are often found growing on the common 

 receptacle among the florets are known as the chaff. When these 

 bracts are entirely absent the receptacle is said to be naked. 

 The leaves of the involucre are called its scales. 



Artificial Synopsis of the Genera. 



SUBORDER I. TUBTTLIP'LOBJE. 



Heads either altogether without strap-shaped corollas, or the 

 latter, if present, forming only the outer circle (the ray). Ray- 

 flowers, when present, a/ways without stamens, and often without 



a pistil also. 



A. Ray-flowers entirely absent. 



* Scales of the involucre in many rows, bristly-pointed, or fringed. 



*- Florets all perfect. 



1. Cir'sium. Leaves and scales of the, involucre, prickly. Pappus of long 

 plumose bristles. Receptacle with long 1 soft bristles among the florets. 

 Flowers reddish-purple. 



