174 LSSSOJVS WITR PLANTS 



bristles, a. We have, then, a head made up of 

 quadriserial flowers, or florets, as the individual 

 flowers may .be called. The entire head is rein- 

 forced by an involucre, in much the method in 

 which the dogwood is subtended by four petal -like 

 bracts and the calla spadix by a corolla -like 

 spathe. 



197. One cloudy morning the dandelions had 

 vanished. A search in the grass revealed num- 

 bers of buds, but no blossoms. Then an hour 

 or two of sunshine brought them out, and we 

 learned that flowers often behave differently at 

 different times of the day and in various kinds 

 of weather. 



198. In spite of the most persistent work with 

 the lawn mower, the dandelions went to seed pro- 

 fusely. At first, we cut off many of the flower- 

 heads, but as the season advanced they seemed to 

 escape us. They bent their stems upon the ground 

 and raised their heads as high as possible and 

 yet not fall victims to the machine; and presently 

 they shot up their long soft stems and scattered 

 their tiny balloons to the wind, and when the 

 lawn-mower next passed, they were either ripe or 

 too high to be caught by the machine. 



199. This seed has behaved strangely in the 

 meantime. The fringe of pappus (as the bristle- 

 like calyx is called) is raised above the seed by 



