THE EVOLUTION PROCESS 237 



one of the most successful in the whole world- 

 flora, the daisy and dandelion order, the axis 

 of inflorescence is arrested in growth until it 

 is a flat disk, and the flower stems have 

 disappeared altogether, so that we have the 

 crowded " head " of flowers, their own indi- 

 vidual development greatly reduced, so charac- 

 teristic of the Composites. This principle of 

 flower- heading is constant in not a few orders 

 otherwise widely distinct, like willows and 

 plantains ; and appears here and there among 

 other orders, e.g. in sea-pinks, and even among 

 labiates and roseworts. It is noticeable that 

 such forms, like the Composites themselves, 

 are commonly vigorous and hardy growers, as 

 may reasonably happen, the saving through 

 subordination of the reproductive shoots 

 being applicable to help on the vegetative 

 ones. In the figs, a peculiarly vigorous and 

 varied tribe, the arrest of the inflorescence 

 goes so far as to make this like an inturned 

 glove-finger, a hollow pouch instead of the 

 usual ascending cone, and with the tiny 

 florets inside accordingly. 



Now, returning to the individual flower, 

 it is an interesting fact that this process of 

 reduction of the great axis of inflorescence 

 from shoot to head, and thence to fig, is 

 repeated on that small axis of the flower, 



