COMPOSITE FAMILY 



plants. They are African and Australian, native to dry sands, 

 accustomed to limited moisture. They are as brilliantly colored 

 as marigolds and apparently have as many rays as an aster, and— 

 they do not fade. The secret of the Immortelles is simple enough 

 after one gets the key to the mystery; before that they seem the 

 marvel of the garden; in a certain way they are the" marvel of the 

 garden, even after their structure is understood. The silvery- 

 white, or bright-pink, or glowing-yellow, that looks like corolla, 

 and is so indestructible, is not corolla, nor is it even calyx — it is 

 involucre, and corresponds in structure and position to the dull- 

 brown bracts that remain after the seeds of aster or of daisy have 

 ripened and flown away. Nature never gets so far afield as to 

 make corolla of such indestructible stuff. She makes involucre 

 stiff, usually green at first and then brown, but in these wonderful 

 plants from the Antipodes the involucral bracts become the deepest 

 red, the rosiest pink, the most brilliant yellow. It is they who give 

 the flower call to the insect'world. 



To make clear : all these flower-heads are composites of the dis- 

 coid type; that is, they have disk-florets, but no ray-florets; what 

 look like ray-florets are the bracts of the involucre. Bracts in all 

 composites are persistent, normally green, finally brown, but the 

 bracts of this group are brilliantly colored and so they may deceive 

 even the elect, until one tears the head to pieces and then the truth 

 comes out. 



If a skilful gardener should take the Immortelle in hand with 

 the aim of lessening the disk and enlarging the bracts, it is very 

 probable that a flower could be produced as regular as a dahlia or 

 as tousled as a chrysanthemum — and indestructible. The only 

 question would be whether it was really worth while. 



It is interesting to note that a large export trade in everlasting 

 flowers centres in Cape Colony, South Africa. They are gathered 

 by the Kaffirs chiefly in the Drakenstein Mountains and brought 

 to the country storekeepers, who dry them in long sheds and when 

 dry pack them in cases. The Kaffirs go out in families, the women 

 and children do most of the work; probably the head of the family 

 gets most of the pay. It is not a very easy task to gather them, as 

 often the best specimens grow in most inaccessible places. 



508. 



