34 



Flowers and their Pedigrees. 



together into a head, which looks at first sight a 

 single blossom, just as dcccpti\ely as the daisy does ; 

 and a still nearer relative, the scabious, even more 

 strikingly resembles the composite form. So that 

 the daisies and their allies have really only carried 

 out one step further a system of crowding which had 

 been alread}' begun by many other plants. 



Fig. 12. — Section of head of Daisy. 



If you look closely at the daisy, you will see in 

 what this crowding consists. The common flower- 

 stalk is flattened out at the end into a regular disk, 

 and on this disk all the florets are seated with no 

 appreciable separate flower-stalks of their own. Out- 

 side them a double row of leaves is arranged, exactly 

 like the calyx in single flowers, and serving the same 

 protective purpose — to preserve the florets from the 

 incursions of unfriendly insects ; while inside, the little 

 individual blossoms have almost lost their own 

 calyxes which are scarcely represented by a few tiny 



