CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



since they furnish an abundance of it, and some honey be- 

 sides. Flying guests are attracted by the great yellow ray 

 flowers, and so are likely to begin collecting pollen from 

 the outside tubular flowers. These flowers have stigmas 

 exposed, as you remember, and the guests bring them 

 pollen from other sunflowers they have been visiting; this 

 is supposed to be better for them than pollen from nearer 

 neighbors. As the insect goes on collecting pollen from 

 the inner flowers, fresh supplies cling to him to be carried 

 to the next head. 



You have probably collected many flowers that are, in 

 structure, similar to the sunflower. By April, or even 

 March, members of this family are among the most common 

 kinds of wild flowers. The early kinds are usually yellow; 

 they are all commonly called daisies. There is one that in 

 April quite carpets many acres of untilled ground in South- 

 ern California, making patches of yellow that can be seen 

 miles away; hence the plants are sometimes called golden 

 fields. These flowers furnish considerable honey as well 

 as pollen, and have a marked fragrance; as one would 

 expect, they are thronged with insect guests, especially 

 flies. Ranchmen say that these flowers, because of the 

 flies they attract, are the cause of much suffering to horses 

 and cattle. Among the prettiest of these daisy-like flow- 

 ers, are tidy- tips, which take their name from the white 

 tips of the ray flowers. Notice especially their calyxes as 

 the corollas wither and the fruits mature; you can readily 

 think out their use. 



Not all members of the family Composite have the 

 two kinds of flowers. You will find many of them quite 

 without strap-shaped flowers, and others consisting en- 

 tirely of them. Some of the latter are the dandelion, 

 chicory, sow-thistle and the pretty summer weed in Fig. 

 12, Chapter III. Most of the flower-heads of this group 

 remain open but a few hours each day, and the plants 



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