Wild Flowers as They Grow 



in the next few rings pollen balls are at the mouths 

 of the florets ; inside this again are the florets just 

 opening at their tips from the bud stage, and then 

 come the closed buds. The surface of the disk of 

 a Daisy is almost level, and this in spite of the fact 

 that these yellow florets are grouped upon quite a 

 steep conical mound found by the end of the flower 

 stalk, but the result is brought about by the outer- 

 most rings being tallest and the height decreasing as 

 they creep up the mound. The exact method by 

 which cross-fertilisation is brought about is set 

 forth at length in the description of its near relative, 

 the golden rod, in a later chapter. One charac- 

 teristic mark of the Daisy is that when the stigmas 

 have received their pollen they close their forks 

 and withdraw into the tube again. Further, the 

 closing at night promotes cross-fertilisation in the 

 ray florets, for their stigmas are bound at that 

 time to rub on the pollen balls on the adjacent 

 disk florets. 



Curiously enough, no one ever seems to find a 



14 



