THE FLOWER 215 
matic surface. It remains in this position till the anthers have 
shed their polien, then, as may be seen by examining an older 
flower, the style begins to elongate, pushing up the pollen 
that has fallen on the hairy outside of the closed stigma, and 
forcing it out of the corolla tube, where it can be scattered 
by insects among the other 
flowers of the cluster. When 
the pollen of its own floret 
has been thus disposed of, the 
stigma lobes open and curl 
outward, ready to receive the 
pollen from other flowers. 
This arrangement is practi- 
cally universal among plants 
of the composite. family ; can 
you divine its object? It 
will beshown later, that much 
larger and stronger seeds are 
315 316 317 
produced when the pistil is 
pollinated from a different 
flower, or, better still, from a 
different plant of the same 
species; hence, you see what 
Fies. 315-317.— Flowers of Arnica 
montana, showing successive stages in pol- 
lination: 315, pistil just extruding from 
anther tube, covered with pollen, but with 
stigmatic surfaces closed; 316, stigma 
opened and mature ; 317, stigma recurved 
to receive pollen from its own or neigh- 
boring anthers if foreign pollen has not 
- . . hi d it. 
a useful adaptation this is. reached: 
236. Nature of a composite flower. — It will be evident, 
from the examination just made, that the daisy, dandelion, 
sunflower, etc., are not single flowers, but compact heads 
of small blossoms so closely united as to appear like a single 
individual; hence they are said to be composite, or com- 
pound. They are the most numerous and widely dissem- 
inated of all plants, comprising one seventh of the entire 
flowering vegetation of the globe, and are regarded by 
botanists as representing the most advanced stage of floral 
evolution. Can you point out some of the adaptations to 
which their success in solving the problems of plant life is 
due? (164.) 
