COMPOSITE FLOWERS. 203 



tanists choose to call them the pappus ; although in 

 reality they are the calyx, which is only stunted and 

 starved in consequence of its being developed amidst 

 the constant pressure of the florets against each other : 

 the pappus is often altogether absent, as in the Daisy 

 for instance ; but it sometimes forms a beautiful 

 plume of feathers, which catches the wind and ena- 

 bles the seed to soar into the air, and to scatter itself 

 to a distance. The delicate feathery balls of the 

 Dandelion which children amuse themselves with 

 blowing away into the air, are the fruit of that plant 

 crowned by the pappus. Below the pappus is the 

 ovary {fig. 2. «.), containing one single ovule ; it 

 terminates in a slender style, which passes through 

 the tube of the corolla, and forks at the top into two 

 stigmas {fig. 2. e.). In time the ovary becomes a dry 

 hairy fruit {fig. 8.), crowned with the pappus, and con- 

 taining one single seed {fig. 9.). Such are the florets 

 of the ray. 



The middle of the flower-head {fig. 1. b.), included 

 within the ray, is called the disk ; it consists of 

 florets constructed very differently from those of the 

 ray. To examine them conveniently you should pull 

 one of them out {fig. 3.). In the ovary you will 

 find no difference worth naming ; the pappus is also 

 like that of the ray, only it is more perfect, and one 

 of its scales is a sort of stiffs bristle {fig. 3. b.). The 

 corolla is of quite another kind ; it is tubular from 

 the bottom to the top ; towards the top it widens, 

 and at last separates into five little divisions which 

 are covered all over with hairs in the inside ; this 



