No. 809 



Daisy Family. Compositae 



(Nos. 809-925.) 



The largest family of flowering plants, comprising over 

 ten thousand species, and over four hundred in the area 

 covered by this book. Of these, only the most showy and 

 conspicuous will be included. Leaves alternate, or opposite, 

 or in some species, all basal. Flowers minute, but aggregated 

 into heads which are usually conspicuous, such as the com- 

 mon Daisy, or very showy, as in the Chrysanthemum and 

 Sunflowers. The heads are arranged in various sorts of 

 clusters. The flowers are crowded upon a common receptacle, 

 which is hidden while the plant is in bloom, but is obvious 

 enough when the flower disintegrates, leaving the flat or 

 cone-shaped receptacle quite naked. A major characteristic 

 of this family is that each head of flowers has, just beneath 

 it, a series of small, usually overlapping bracts, known as 

 involucral bracts, and the collection of them is an involucre. 

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

 this family. 



The corolla is minute, wholly tubular in some kinds, such 

 as IJoneset, but with broad spreading rays in others, like 

 the Dandelion. Many plants in the family have both ray 

 flowers and tubular flowers in a single head. The rays are 

 not separate petals as one might suspect, but are the (hypo- 

 thetically) united petals of a single flower. So that each ray 

 represents a complete flower, and the collection of rays (or 

 of tubular flowers) constitutes the head. Among the flowers 

 are many fine hair-like appendages, that are often attached 

 to the seeds, as in the Dandelion, and serve as tiny para- 

 chutes for wind dispersal. A little study of the pictures of 

 this section will soon familiarize one with the details of this 

 family of plants, which is spread throughout the world. While 



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