288 COMPOSITE. 



ORDER LI. COMPOSITE. 



Known by having the flowers in a head, surrounded by an involucre (forming 

 the compound flower of the older botanists), and syngenesious anthers. Flowers 

 either perfect, polygamous, or monoecious, or rarely dioecious, or some neutral. 

 Corolla gamopetalous (monopetalous). Stamens 5, or sometimes 4, inserted on the 

 tube of the corolla alternate with its lobes : filaments generally distinct : anthers 

 syngenesious, i. e. united into a tube. Ovary 1-celled, with a solitary erect anat- 

 ropous ovule : style one, 2-cleft or 2-lobed at the apex ; the lobes or branches of 

 the style bearing stigmas in the form of marginal lines on their inner face. Fruit 

 an akene. Seed destitute of albumen, filled by the straight embryo. Calyx with 

 tube investing and incorporated with the ovary ; its limb either wanting, or in the 

 form of a border or crown, or of teeth, scales, awns, bristles, &c., surmounting the 

 ovary : it is called a pappus, whatever be its form or texture. Corolla epigynous, 

 either strap-shaped (ligulate} or tubular ; in the former case the 5 or 4 petals of 

 which it is composed are sometimes indicated by the teeth or notches at the apex 

 of the ligule or expanded portion : in the latter case 5-lobed or occasionally 4-lobed, 

 the lobes valvate in the bud, the veins of the tube forking at the sinuses and 

 bordering the lobes. Anthers 2-celled, introrse, opening on the inner face; the 

 pollen brushed out of the tube by the lengthening of the style, some portion 

 of which, or of its branches, in staminiferous flowers usually is beset externally or 

 tipped with a rough-bristly or papillose surface. Heads homogamoiis, i. e. with all 

 their flowers alike, or heterogamous, i. e. of more than one sort of flowers. Homog- 

 amous heads are sometimes completely liguliftorous, i. e. all the flowers with strap- 

 shaped or ligulate corolla, and in this case all hermaphrodite ; sometimes discoid, 

 i. e. with no ligulate flowers. Heterogamous heads are commonly radiate, i. e. the 

 outermost or marginal flowers have enlarged and mostly strap-shaped corollas, and 

 are always female or else neutral : these are called flowers of the ray, or ray- 

 flowers, or shortly rays : those within are termed flowers of the disk or disk- 

 flowers. Some heterogamous heads are discoid, i. e. the marginal flowers although 

 unlike the central ones are all tubular, or at least not developed into rays. The 

 bracts or leaves of the involucre which surround the head are commonly termed 

 scales, whatever their texture. The commonly dilated extremity of the peduncle 

 on which the flowers are inserted is the receptacle. When the receptacle bears only 

 flowers within the involucre, it is said to be naked : when there are bracts, usually 

 in the form of chaffy scales (therefore termed palece, palets, or chaff] borne on the 

 receptacle, mostly one outside of each flower, the receptacle is said to be paleaceous 

 or chaffy. Herbs, shrubs, or sometimes trees, various in foliage, with determinate 

 inflorescence as to the order of the heads, i. e. the terminal or central one first de- 

 veloped ; but the evolution of the blossoms in each head centripetal, i. e. the mar- 

 ginal ones earliest. DC. Prodr. v., vi., & vii., part 1 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 54 - 

 504; Benth. & Hook. Gen. PL ii. 163-533. 



An immense order, found in all parts of the world, comprising about one tenth of all Phaenoga- 

 mous plants, in North America and especially in California a still larger proportion. Very 

 few are important for any active properties or useful products ; but many are cultivated for orna- 

 ment. 



