Wild Flowers as They Grow 



five petals which originally composed it ; we call 

 these female flowers. In the centre of the ray 

 florets are tubular florets, each a perfect httle flower, 

 as in the daisy, and not lacking one of its essential 

 organs as the ray florets do in both Golden Rod 

 and daisy, despite their greater size and attractive- 

 ness. For in the tiny tube five stamens stand so 

 closely pressed together that the heads are now 

 completely joined into a ring, and they stand on 

 the seed-case and form a ring round its column. 

 These are hermaphrodite flowers — i.e. both male 

 and female. 



In most of these composite flowers — the Golden 

 Rod is a member of the Compositce family — the 

 procedure is the same, the anther heads have their 

 opening on the inside, so, when they open, their 

 pollen contents collect in the chamber formed by 

 their united heads. The floor of the chamber is the, 

 as yet closed, top of the ovary column. Presently, 

 by the column growing fast, this floor is carried up 



right through the pollen chamber. (Notice the 



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