A COMPOUND FLOWER EXAMINED. 207 



petals, and try if you can describe one of them as 

 they appear to you. 



EDWARD. 



They look like little blossoms too, but they are 

 very different from the yellow ones. There is a 

 long white part, tipped with red, coming out from 

 one side ; and the blossom looks as if the other 

 petals had been torn off. 



MOTHER. 



The white part is one of the divisions in the 

 border of the little blossom, but much longer than 

 the rest ; you see it is shaped something like the 

 head of a spear, blunted, with a very slight notch 

 at the end ; and you will find, with your glass, that 

 the other part of the border, which you thought 

 was torn, has three very small teeth. When we 

 open the blossom, you perceive that there are no 

 stamens; but the style comes up from the seed 

 through the tube of the blossom itself, and has 

 two summits curled a little backwards. There is 

 no seed-vessel : but the seeds, as in the little yel- 

 low flower that we have just examined, are* single, 

 naked, shaped somewhat like an egg a little flat- 

 tened, and placed immediately below the blossom. 

 Now, if you look at the receptacle, from which we 

 have pulled off all these little flowers, you will find 

 that it stands up, like a sugar-loaf, in the middle 



