COMPOSIT.E. 285 



florets. Involucel very minute. Ovary and fruit angular, crowned by the 

 8 or 10 radiating teeth or short bristles of the calyx. 



In pastures, open woods, waste and cultivated places, throughout Europe 

 and Russian Asia to the Arctic Circle. Abmidant in Britain. Fl. all 



XLII. THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. COMPOSITiE. 



Herbs, or, in some exotic genera or species, shrubs, with al- 

 ternate or opposite leaves, without stipules. Howers or florets 

 collected several together into a head surrounded by an invo- 

 lucre, the whole having the appearance of a single flower, and 

 called by older authors a compound flower with a common calyx. 

 The receptacle, or enlarged summit of the peduncle on which 

 the florets are inserted within the involucre, either bears chafty 

 scales and hairs between the florets or is naked. In each floret 

 the calyx is combined with the ovary, either completely so or 

 only appears at its summit as a short border, or more frequently 

 as 2i pappus : that is, a ring of long, simple or feathery hairs, 

 or of small chafty scales. Corollas either all tubular, with a 5- 

 toothed (or rarely 4-toothed) border, or all ligulate : that is to 

 say, flat, linear or oblong, forming only a short tube at the 

 base ; or else both kinds are in the same head, the central ones 

 tubular, forming the dislc ; the outer ones ligulate, constituting 

 the ray. In the latter case the head of flowers is said to be 

 radiate, and in contradistinction a head of flowers that has no 

 ray is said to be discoid, and one which has no disk is said to 

 be lifjulate. Stamens 5 or rarely 4, inserted in the tube of the 

 corolla ; the anthers linear and united in a sheath round the 

 style. Ovary inferior, with a single pendulous ovule, and a 

 filiform style divided at the top into 2 short branches bear- 

 ing the stigmas. Fruit a small, dry, seed-like nut, usually called 

 an achene, crowned by the pappus or sometimes naked. 



The most extensive family among flowering plants, and represented in 

 every quarter of the globe and in every description of station. It is also 

 most easily recognized. The ligular florets are unknown in any other family, 

 and when the florets are all tubular, the Composites are distinguished from 

 the Teasel family, and the few otliers which have similar heads of florets, by 

 the union of the anthers. In Jasione indeed the anthers aresUghtly united, 

 but there, besides other characters, the ovary and capsule have 2 cells with 

 several seeds. The genera are very numerous, and the characters are often 

 taken from differences in the achenes and in the pappus which crowns them, 

 which cannot Well be observed until the fruit is ripe. It is therefore par- 

 ticularly necessary, in Composites, in collecting specimens for determination, 

 to select such as have the most advanced flower-heads, and these wUl always 

 be found in the centre of the corymb. 



