DICOTYLEDONS- -COMPOSITE DIAGRAM 11. 197 



inserted on the ovary itself, and this is placed with the other 

 ovaries of the adjacent flowers, very regularly on a kind of plate 

 or receptacle. When we eat an artichoke, we take out what is 

 called the choke, which is nothing else than small flowers still in 

 bud, for which the bottom of the artichoke forms the receptacle. 

 This is very large in the sun-flower, and is also conspicuous in 

 the thistle, when its violet flowers are pulled out. The receptacle 

 is always surrounded with scales or leaves like those of the arti- 

 choke. They form a kind of basket, in which the flowers are 

 contained like a bunch of flowers in a vase. 



Sometimes all these small flowers are alike, as in the thistle, 

 but in other cases they differ considerably. Those of the margin 

 are often larger and differently coloured ; in the daisy and 

 camomile they are white, while those in the centre of the flower 

 are yellow. They may be regular or irregular, male, female, or 

 hermaphrodite, or have neither stamens nor pistils. 



Let us take a thistle first. All its flowers are nearly similar. 

 The corolla is regular, and shaped like a tube widened above, and 

 cleft into five divisions. The corolla is inserted upon the ovary ; 

 and the stamens in their turn are inserted on the corolla. They 

 are five in number, and soldered together by their pollen-sacs, 

 while the threads are distinct. The united sacs form a canal into 

 which the pistil, which ends in two bifurcated branches, passes. 

 The thistle gives us an example of a composite plant, the flowers 

 of which are all regular. When they fade, the ovary becomes a 

 seed furnished with small silky sails which allow it to be carried 

 away by the wind. 



The Centaury and Wormwood have very small baskets, and their 

 flowers are complete and regular like those of the thistle. 



In the Chicory, the flowers are still complete, that is, they are 

 male and female, but they are no longer regular; the corolla, 

 instead of being tube-shaped, is cleft from above downwards, 

 and removed beyond the receptacle, in the shape of a small plate, 

 at the extremity of which the five divisions of the regular corolla 

 of thistles are still to be recognized. Each of these corollas is 



