koW FLOWERS CLUB I'OGETHER. 161 



The composites which produce purple or blue 

 ray-florets to attract insects are in some ways the 

 highest of their class. Still, there is another 

 group of composites which has proceeded a 

 little further in one direction ; and that is the 

 group which includes the dandelions. In these 

 heads all the florets alike have become strap- 

 shaped or ray-like ; but they differ from the 

 double composites of the gardeners in this, that 

 each floret still retains its stamens and pistil. 

 The composites of the dandelion group are 

 chiefly weeds like the hawkbit and the sow- 

 thistle. A few are cultivated as vegetables, 

 such as lettuce, salsify, chicory, and endive ; 

 fewer still are prized for their flowers for 

 ornamental purposes, such as the orange hawk- 

 weed. The prevailing colour in this class is 

 yellow, and the devices for insect-fertilisation 

 are not nearly so high as in the ray-bearing 

 group. I regard them as to a great extent a 

 retrograde tribe of the composite family. 



In this chapter I have dealt chiefly with the 

 co-operative clubbing together of insect-fertilised 

 flowers, for purposes of mutual convenience ; but 

 you must not forget that similar clubs exist also 

 among the wind-fertilised blossoms in quite equal 

 profusion. Such are the catkins of forest trees, 

 the panicles of grasses, the spikes of sedges, and 

 the heads of the black-cap rush and many other 

 water-plants. Some of these, such as the bur- 

 reed, we have already considered. 



Lastly, I ought to add that where the flowers 

 themselves are inconspicuous, attention is often 

 called to them by a bright-coloured leaf or group 



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