BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 83 



flowers, each, in most, if not all cases, with its 

 calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistil. It seems as 

 if nature had made up an immense number of 

 minute flowers, so many, indeed, that it was 

 difficult to find stalks for all, and so was forced 

 to crowd them off her hands in bundles. From 

 this circumstance they are incorporated into a 

 natural order, called the Compositae. This class 

 contains many valuable medicinal herbs. It 

 has five orders : 



And first Polygamia ^Equalis, in which the 

 florets on the flower are all perfect, each having 

 five stamens and one pistil ; and producing one 

 seed, such are the Dandelion, Boneset, and 

 Thistle. Every one has noticed the balloons of 

 the Dandelion, each of which is a seed with its 

 calyx turned into a light chaffy substance to 

 bear it away. The blue flowers of the Succory 

 show here also. 



Secondly, Polygamia Superflua, in which the 

 florets are all perfect and fertile, those of the cir- 

 cumference having no stamens, rather filaments 

 without anthers, hence the name applied to the 

 filaments ; such are the Tansy, Wormwood, 

 Starflower, Coltsfoot, and Daisy, about which 



