Ii6 Introduction to Botany. 



with a tuft of hairs above ; stigma generally 2-5-lobed. Fruit a capsule 

 or berry with many small seeds. 



I. SPECULARIA. Venus's Looking-glass. 

 (L., specularia, a window glass made of talc; from bluish color of the flowers.) 



Low annuals, with alternate leaves and axillary blue or purplish 

 flowers ; the earlier flowers small and deistogamous. Calyx 5-, or 

 sometimes 3-4-lobed. Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, 

 with membranous, hairy filaments. Ovary mostly 3-celled ; sometimes 

 2- or 4-celled. Stigma usually 3-lobed. Capsule opening by lateral 

 valves. 



1. Specularia perfoliata, A. DC. (L., /«?-, through; folium, leaf.) Some- 

 what pubescent, 6 to 20 inches tall. Leaves rounded, crenate-dentate, cordate and 

 clasping at the base. Flowers solitary, or few together in the axils, sessile. The 

 upper and older flowers with an expanded and conspicuous corolla, blue or violet. 

 In open grounds or dry woods. 



2. Specularia leptocarpa, Gray. (Gr. lepios, small ; karpos, fruit.) Simple or 

 branched, 6 to 15 inches high. Leaves lanceolate, with mostly solitary sessile flowers 

 in the axils. Calyx lobes 4-5, awl-shaped, but in the earlier flowers only 3. Corolla 

 of the earlier flowers rudimentary, of the later flowers rotate, \ inch or more broad. 

 Capsule nearly cylindrical. In dry soil. 



COMPdSIT.S;. Composite Family. 



Flowers in a compact head, borne on an enlarged common receptacle, 

 the head having the appearance of a double flower. Many bracts sub- 

 tend the head, forming an involucre somewhat simulating a calyx. 

 Limb of the calyx (termed pappus in this family), rising from near the 

 summit of the l -celled ovary in the form of bristles, awns, scales, or 

 teeth, or in the form of a cup, or sometimes entirely absent. Corolla 

 strap-shaped, or tubular, mostly 5-lobed. Stamens 5, rarely 4, inserted 

 on the tube of the corolla ; anthers united into a tube around the style. 

 Ovary l-celled and l-seeded; style 2-cleft. Fruit a dry, l-seeded 

 achene. Heads which are composed of strap-shaped (ligulate) corollas 

 throughout, or only at the margin, are termed radiate, flowers with ligu- 

 late corollas being termed ray flowers. Heads without ray flowers are 

 termed discoid. The family is divided into two series or suborders : 

 I. Tubuliflora, in which the corollas are all tubular; or ligulate only at 

 the margin of the head, where they are pistillate, or neutral. II. Ligidi- 

 florcE, in which the corollas are ligulate in all flowers of the head, and all 

 of the flowers are perfect. Frequently bracts, in this family called chaff, 



