THE AUTVMNAL HAWK-SIT. 103 



observers attach importance to features which seem to 

 others comparatively worthless, hence, not only the species, 

 but even the genera in which they are to be placed are by 

 no means definitely accepted. The subject is one with 

 which amateurs can scarcely deal, and we only refer 

 to the difficulties at all, because in so doing- we thus 

 account for the various names that the plant has borne 

 at one period or another, or in the system of classification 

 of one or other observer. 



As this is a very fairly typical composite flower, a 

 few words on the family to which it belongs will not be 

 out of place. The Composite family of flowering plants, 

 from the striking and exclusive features they possess 

 in common are at once readily distinguished from all others, 

 but are on the same account very difficult to deal with 

 so as to discriminate properly between them. In every 

 case the florets are collected into heads on the summit of 

 the stalk, and these at their base are surrounded by the 

 involucre, a cup-like form composed of rings of bracts. 

 The style of the pistil is divided at the top into two 

 parts, which curl downwards in a scroll form : they may 

 be clearly seen in the succory. The corolla of each floret is 

 either tubular and regular in form, or else this tube is 

 split down nearly to its base and then flattened into a 

 ribbon-like form. In some of these plants all the florets 

 are tubular : the thistles may be taken as a good example 

 of this section. The nodding thistle, the spear-plume 

 thistle, and the burdock may be referred to as illustrations. 



A second section is composed of plants in which all the 

 florets are ligulate, that is to say of the long strap or 

 /ibbon-like form. Examples of these may be seen in the 

 dandelion, the succory, the corn sow-thistle, the common 



