140 THE STORY OF THE PLANTS. 



and function, but all banded together in due sub- 

 ordination for the purpose of effecting a common 

 object. There is avast and very varied family of 

 such united flowers, known as the composites; it 

 stands at the head of the fivefold group of flower- 

 ing plants, as the orchids stand at the head of the 

 threefold ; and it is so widely spread, it includes 

 so large a proportion of the best-known plants, 

 and it fills so great a space in the vegetable world 

 generally, that I cannot possibly pass it over even 



FIG. 33. Single floret from the FIG. 34. Single floret from the 

 centre of a daisy. centre of a daisy, with the co- 



rolla opened, much enlarged 



in so brief and hasty a history as this of the de- 

 velopment of plants on the surface of our planet. 

 If you pick a daisy you will think at first 

 sight it is a single flower. But if you look closer 

 into it you will see it is really a great group of 

 flowers a compound flower-head, composed of 

 many dozen distinct blossoms or florets, as we 

 call them (Fig. 33). These, however, are not all 

 alike. The florets in the centre, which you took 

 no doubt at first sight for the stamens and pistils, 

 are small yellow tubular blossoms, each with a 



