COMPOSITE FLOWERS. 201 



to shew you by the eye, the possibility that all these 

 small affairs, both white and yellow, may be so many 

 distinct flow^ers; and this is a constant fact. You 

 perceive, nevertheless, that all these little flowers are 

 pressed, and inclosed in a calyx, which is common to 

 them all, and which is that of the Daisy. In consider- 

 ing then the whole Daisy as one flower, we give it a 

 very significant name, when we call it a composite flower. 

 Now, there are many genera and species of flowers 

 formed, like the Daisy, of an assemblage of other 

 smaller flowers, contained in a common calyx. This 

 is what constitutes the sixth tribe, of which I pro- 

 posed to treat, namely, that of the Composite Flowers^ 

 Thus, in his admirable gossiping manner does Rous- 

 seau set about explaining the structure of a composite 

 or compound flower ; I shall not continue to follow him, 

 but take my own way of illustrating the subject fur- 

 ther ; stopping, in the first place, to notice two inac- 

 curacies into which he has fallen, in common with 

 all writers of the same day. The cluster of little 

 flowers or florets, which he calls the flower of the 

 Daisy, although qualified by the addition of com- 

 posite, leads unnecessarily to a confusion of ideas, 

 and is much better designated by the term flower- 

 head (or head of flowers), which it really is ; the 

 other error is that of calling the little leaves that 

 surround the florets a calyx ; he should have said 

 they were an involucre. The word calvx strictly 

 belongs to a single flower, and not to a collection of 

 flowers ; while involucre is precisely the term that 

 expresses an assemblage of little leaves or bracts 



