The Fascination of Flowers [ 329 



like bells. Look at the disk flowers closely and you will see in 

 them the pollen tubes or yellow two-part stigmas. 



Insects of many shapes and sizes carry the goldenrod's pollen 

 far and wide for it. 



ASTERS ATTRACTIVE TO BEES 



Like goldenrod, asters are to be found in all sorts of places, 

 and there are numerous species. They too are composites, but 

 the flower heads are different in form from the goldenrod. At the 

 center of their circular flower heads there are yellow disk flowers 

 that turn a dull purplish color as they age. 



These disk flowers yield an abundance of nectar, and you 

 frequently see bees, small butterflies, and beelike flies visiting 

 them. One of the most beautiful and best known is the New Eng- 

 land aster; it is widespread throughout the eastern United States 

 and is frequently cultivated. Its numerous flowers, blooming from 

 August to October, vary in hue from pale violet to deep purple. 



SOME SUNFLOWERS ARE TWELVE FEET HIGH 



Because of its size, this giant plant serves best of all to 

 show us the make-up of a composite flower. One wild species 

 the "tall sunflower" is common to swamps and the borders of 

 wet meadows. It grows as high as twelve feet and has a flower 

 head about two inches across. On the common garden sunflower 

 the flower head may have a width of ten inches. 



First to unfold are the wide, flaring ray flowers that are largely 

 responsible for the sunflower's spectacular appearance. There 

 may be two or three rows of these. When they are a few days old, 

 you can see inside them a circle of florets from which ripened 

 pollen and stigmas have already disappeared. Below the florets 

 fertilized seeds are now developing. 



Inside this circle is another composed of florets where coiled- 

 back stigma lobes protrude from the anther tubes. Next, moving 

 toward the center of the flower head, you may see several rows of 

 florets in which pollen is just being pushed out; and within this 

 ring may be florets with the anther tubes still closed. At the center 



