458 ORDER COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FLOWERS. 



size, colour, properties, &c., which these exhibit. The order 

 alluded to is that of COMPOSITE or Composite plants, so named 

 on account of the manner in which a number of flowers are clus- 

 tered together so as to form one which is apparently single. We 

 are in the habit of speaking of the Dais* , the Dandelion, the 

 Sun-flower, the Dahlia, &c., as single flowers ; and yet every 

 one of these is really composed of a head, on which a large num- 

 ber of blossoms are crowded together. If any one of these be 

 examined in its natural state (that is, not affected by cultiva- 

 tion), it will be found to consist of the following parts. In the 

 first place, the flower-stalk spreads out into a large fleshy ex- 

 pansion, which is the disk or receptacle of all the florets united. 

 Around the edge of this, we notice a whorl of small green 

 leaflets; these are bracts, and .the whole circle is termed the 

 involucrum. Above and within these, we notice one or more 

 whorls of flat leafy-coloured organs, which at first sight appear 

 to be single petals, but which will be presently shown to be so 

 many distinct florets, of which the corolla has expanded itself on 

 one side only. In the wild Daisy and Sunflower, only one 

 whorl of these exists ; but in the cultivated Daisy, as in the 

 Dahlia, they become numerous, from a cause that will imme- 

 diately appear. Within these we find, crowded together upon 

 the disk, a large number of minute flowers, scarcely having any 

 perianth. That these are really such, can often be only distinctly 

 seen with a magnifying glass. Every common Daisy of our 

 meadows contains between two and three hundred such florets, 

 each perfect in itself, that is having its corolla, stamens, pistil, 

 and fruit. These central florets are termed florets of the disk ; 

 in them the floral envelopes are but little developed, whilst the 

 organs essential to reproduction are complete. On the other 

 hand, the flat leaflets by which they are surrounded are called 

 florets of the ray, from the radiating manner in which they are 

 set on the receptacle ; in them, the corolla is developed at the 

 expense of the reproductive organs, one or both sets of which are 

 usually absent. If one of them be pulled up carefully at the 

 end by which it was fastened to the flower, it will be seen that it 

 Is not flat at the bottom, as it is at the top, but that it becomes 



