COMPOSITE FAMILY 



withered while the stigmas have opened, and, being receptive, are 

 loaded with pollen; last of all, next to the rays, are rows of withered 

 florets maturing the fertilized fruits. The flowering impulse is 

 called centripetal; that is, it proceeds from the circumference to 

 the centre. In one fespect the florets of the Sunflower are unlike 

 most composites — they still retain obvious traces of a true calyx 

 and consequently are destitute of pappus. The rays stand up 

 bravely to their duty until the very centre florets have opened; 

 then they begin to droop; their work being done, they pass away. 



Beneath the receptacle, strengthening and supporting it, are the 

 leafy bracts, row upon row, that make the involucre. All com- 

 posite heads have this; its office is the protection of the more 

 delicate parts within. As the rays begin to droop, the involucre 

 bracts become active and close as much as possible about the disk 

 to protect the maturing seeds. What seems to be a seed is an 

 akene; that is, a seed-vessel containing a single seed. These are 

 large, brown, shining, each at first with two little ears that are 

 obviously the remains of a calyx. 



Moore's famous lines: 



As the sunflower turns on her god, when he sets. 

 The same look which she turn'd when he rose, 



has been seriously questioned and regarded as a poet's fancy 

 utterly without foundation m fact. But whoever carefully ob- 

 serves the growing plants of the Great Sunflower in his garden will 

 be convinced that at a certain period of their development the 

 growing tips do follow the sun. This is not true of the younger 

 plants; and, obviously, it could not be true of the stem summit 

 when loaded with flower-heads, or even of a single flower-head on 

 its stiff peduncle, but at the time when the leaves of the summit are 

 gathering into a rosette, preparatory to the appearance of the bud, 

 the tips seem to be especially sensitive and they do follow the sun— 

 at least mine do; one cannot speak for his neighbors' Sunflowers. 

 The Great Sunflower has varied into many forms. Califdrnicus 

 is a large, double variety; globdsus has enormous globular heads; 



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