The Daisy's Pedigree 37 



and the daisy, instead of being the simplest, is one 

 of the most developed representatives of the compo- 

 site pattern. If you turn to that tall, rank-looking 

 weed growing yonder, under cover of the hedge, you 

 will get a good surviving example of the earliest form 

 of composite. The weed is a eupatory — ' hemp 

 agrimony ' the country people call it — and it has 

 small heads, each containing a few tubular purple 

 florets, all exactly the same size and shape, and all 

 much more loosely gathered together than in the 

 daisy or the dandelion. The eupatory is interesting 

 as preserving for us one of the first stages in the 

 ancestry of the higher composites, after they had 

 attained to their distinctive family characteristics. 

 Once more, I don't wish you to understand that the 

 daisies are descended from the eupatory : all I mean 

 is, that their ancestors must once have passed through 

 an analogous stage ; and that the eupatory has never 

 got beyond it, while the daisies have gone on still 

 further differentiating and adapting themselves till 

 they reached their present peculiar form. Now, if 

 you compare this daisy with the head of eupatory, 

 you will see that they differ in two particulars — the 

 daisy has outer rays, while the eupatory has none ; 

 and the inner daisy florets are yellow, while the 

 eupatory florets are purple. The latter difference is 



