COMPOSITE FAMILY. Composites. 



COMPOSITE FAMILY. Composite. 



Mostly perennial herbs. A great family remarkable 

 for its compound flower-heads which are often radiate in 

 character, with a central disc composed of tiny tubular 

 florets surrounded by brightly colored rays ; in some 

 cases the florets are strap-shaped. They are variously 

 perfect, polygamous, and staminate and pistillate on the 

 same or different plants ; in chicory and dandelion the 

 florets are perfect and strap-shaped ; in coneflower and 

 sunflower the tubular florets of the central disc are per- 

 fect and the ray-flowers neutral (without stamens and 

 pistil) ; in aster and golden-rod the inner tubular florets 

 are perfect and the outer ray-florets are pistillate ; in 

 thistle and burdock the florets are all tubular and perfect 

 but lacking rays ; in Antennaria the tubular florets are 

 staminate and pistillate on different plants, and in rag- 

 weed the staminate and pistillate florets are on the same 

 plant. The family is largely dependent upon insects for 

 cross-fertilization. 



A tall smooth-stemmed plant found in 

 Tall Ironweed mo j s fc situations, with lance - shaped, 



Vpvtlo Hid 



altissima toothed, deep green leaves and a terminal 



Madder purple cluster of brownish purple or madder 

 August- purple flowers remotely resembling bache- 



September i or > s buttons without petals ; the small 



flower-heads appear hairy or chaffy. 5-8 feet high. 

 Penn. , south, and west to 111. and La. 



The common species eastward, differing 

 Ironweed from the tall ironweed in its usually slightly 



Vemonia rough stem, longer lance-shaped deep 



Noveboracensis green leaves, and acute, bristle-tipped, 

 Madder purple brown-purple scales of the flower-heads. 

 September The ^ sthetic dul1 Purple (rarely white) 

 flowers resemble petalless bachelor's but- 

 tons, or at a distance asters. 3-7 feet high. In moist 

 ground, oftenest near the coast, from Mass., south to 

 Ga., and west to Minn, and eastern Kan. Found near 

 Englewood, N. J. Named for Wm. Vernon, an early 

 English botanist. 



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