THE SHASTA DAISY 323 



with longer and stronger stems and more vigor- 

 ous and hardy growth. The Westralia has blos- 

 soms of even greater size, and exceptionally 

 long, strong, and graceful stems, and the Cali- 

 fornia has a slightly smaller flower, but produced 

 in great profusion; and its blossoms, instead of 

 being snowy white like those of the other races, 

 are bright lemon yellow on first opening. 



Moreover the enhanced vitality due to cross- 

 breeding and the mingling of different ancestral 

 strains, was evidenced presently in a tendency to 

 the production not merely of large blossoms, but 

 of blossoms having an increased number of ray 

 flowers. 



The daisy is a composite flower, and the petal- 

 like leaves that give it chief beauty are not really 

 petals, but are technically spoken of as rays. The 

 flowers proper, individually small and inconspic- 

 uous, are grouped at the center of the circling 

 rays. 



In all the original species the ray flowers con- 

 stitute a single row. But the hybrids began al- 

 most from the first to show an increased number 

 of longer and wider ray flowers, some of which 

 overlapped their neighbors. 



By sowing seed from flowers showing this 

 tendency, after a few generations a strain of 

 plants was developed in which the blossoms were 



