No. 243. 



Plants not Climbing or Twining, Sometimes 

 Weak and Prostrate, but Never True Vines. 



(Nos. 244-925.) 



This, the largest single group of herbs in the book, 

 makes up the great bulk of our common wild flowers. There 

 are nearly seven hundred species to be so separated that they 

 may be identified, and certain characters are relied upon for 

 this purpose. While the pictures tell the story of these struc- 

 tural differences, and in most cases will help the reader to 

 identify whatever plant he may have gathered, it is well to 

 keep in mind what these differences are. 



One large section is the daisy family, which differs from 

 all other plants in having many small flowers crowded into 

 more or less compact heads. These may have all ray-flowers 

 like the common dandelion (see fig. 914), or they may be all 

 tubular like the boneset and ironweed (see figs. 810-815), 

 or they may have both ray and tul:>ular flowers like the sun 

 flowers and asters (see figs. 854-871, and 904, 906). But 

 whether they have tubular, or ray flowers, or both, these 

 plants of the daisy family all have beneath the flower-head 

 a series of overlapping scales, known as involucral bracts. 

 See the Picture Glossary for a cross-section of a flower of 

 the Daisy family. 



Another large section of herbs has practically no petals, 

 and if, as sometimes happens the sepals take the place of 

 petals, then they are not very conspicuous, and usually not 

 showy. 



Still other groups have obvious, and often showy, petals, 

 or if these are lacking and consequently replaced by sepals, 

 then these are petal-like, and usually showy. Those that have 

 true petals may have them united to form some sort of a 

 tube, as in the mints and scores of other plants, or they 



83 



