12 



NATURE STUDY. 



separate, instead of being united to form a ring or tube, 

 as in the dandelion. In the centre of the buttercup 

 flower is a mass of green bodies which careful examina- 

 tion shows to be seed-vessels, or pistils, each containing 

 one seed, but without any style, and without any hairy 

 attachment above. Unlike the dandelion floret, in its 



great yellow cluster, 

 each buttercup flower 

 stands alone, growing 

 directly from the upper 

 end (receptacle) of the 

 flower-stalk. The dan- 

 delion and buttercup 

 flowers have the same 

 parts, but the arrange- 

 ment of these parts is 

 very different in the 

 two. 



When we compare the 



**!: dandelion and the but- 



tercup with the common thistle (see Figs. 7 and 8) we 

 find that the roots, stems, and leaves of all three are 

 very unlike, and at first sight the flower of the thistle 

 seems unlike those of the other two plants. A careful 

 study, however, shows a cup-shaped, spiny involucre, 

 similar in position, but not in appearance, to that of 

 the dandelion, composed of many parts united or grown 

 together. Within this spiny cup is a large number of 

 little flowers (see Fig. 8), differing from those of the 

 dandelion in shape, but like them in having a mi- 



Fig. 7. Blossom of Thistle. 



