The Daisy's Pedigree. 41 



go on flowering till December 3 1 ; that they occur in 

 almost every field far more abundantly than any 

 other blossom ; and that each one of them is not a 

 single flower, but a whole head of flowers — it will be 

 quite clear that they are much more numerous than 

 any rival species. And when we add to them the 

 other very common white-rayed composites, such as 

 the camomiles, many of which abound almost as freely 

 in their own haunts and at their proper season, it is 

 obvious that this highly evolved composite type is the 

 dominant plant race of the old world at least. In the 

 new world, their place is taken by a somewhat more 

 developed type still, that of the Michaelmas daisies, 

 which have their rays even more ornamental than our 

 own, and brightly coloured with mauve or lilac pig- 

 ment. All the world over, however, in and out of the 

 tropics, the commonest, most numerous, and most 

 successful of plants are ray-bearing composites of one 

 kind or another, like the daisies, with the rays differ- 

 ing in colour from the central florets. 



Finally, it may, perhaps, at first hearing, sound 

 absurd to say that the daisy group, including these 

 other composites with tinted rays, forms the very head 

 and crown of the vegetable creation, as man does in 

 the animal creation : and yet it is none the less true. 

 We are so accustomed to look upon a daisy as a 



