AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT 39 



fig. 192. . The plant is from one to three feet high, of a rather brilliant green, and soft in texture. 

 It possesses rather dangerous qualities, hence the familiar name ; while the derivation of the word 

 Doronicum, given to the genus by Linnaeus, though not quite clear, is supposed to be derived 

 from two Greek words, doron, a gift, and nike, victory, as the plant was formerly used in some 

 countries to destroy wild beasts, though, according to other writers, it is the Arabic name for the 

 Leopard's-bane (durungi), latinized by the earlier botanists. 



The Leopard's-bane belongs to the natural order Composites, the most extensive of all the 

 orders, the most widely spreading, and the most easily recognised. It contains more than 900 

 genera and almost 10,000 species. According to Humboldt, a sixth of the flowering plants of 

 North America, one half of those of .tropical America, a sixteenth of the flora of New Holland, 

 one-eighth of that of Germany, one-seventh of that of France, belong to this important order. 

 Though, as ornamentists, we should speak of fig. 193 as the flower in the same way that we should 

 refer to the flower of the Buttercup, yet botanically it represents a whole bunch or head of flowers ; 

 the composite, flower, or flower-head being made up of an aggregation of florets, unisexual or 

 hermaphrodite, forming a dense head of blossom on a common receptacle, the part that we should 

 as ornamentists term the calyx, being a ring of bracts. Each little floret is in most cases very 

 minute, still, any careful observer will easily verify the existence of them for himself In some of 

 the plaijts all the florets are perfect, i.e. have both stamens and pistil, and have a ligulate or strap- 

 like form of corolla, this may be very well seen by pulling a dandelion flower carefully to pieces. 

 In another large division all the florets are tubular, and alike in the same head, as in the thistles, or 

 these tubular florets, themselves regular in form, may have an outer ring of irregular and neuter 

 ones, as in the knapweeds (Fig. 247). In some cases these outer florets form by far the most con- 

 spicuous part of the flower-head, as in the Corn Blue- bottle (Ceniaurea Cyanus), where the florets of 

 the disk are small and purple, and those of the outer ray few, but bright blue, and of large size. 



It would be foreign to our present purpose to enlarge on the various characteristics that: 

 have aided the scientific botanist in his task of classification — a task of no small difficulty in deal- 

 ing with so many species ; but all who care to peruse the subject at any length will derive all the 

 information they need on consulting any good work on systematic botany, aided by personal ob- 

 servation wherever it is at all possible, theoretical knowledge alone being of little value. 



Our readers will find examples of the composite type of flower in figs. 104, 113, 243, 347, 

 296. Other very good natural and familiar illustrations will be met with in the Dandelion 

 ( Taraxacum dens-leonis), the Daisy (Bellis perennis), Corn Marigold (Chrysanthemum segetum), 

 Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis), Yarrow (Achillea millejolium), Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), 

 Ragwort (Senecio squalidus). Elecampane (Inula Helenium), Colt's-foot (Tussilago Farfara), 

 Chicory (Cichorium Intybus). Nipple-wort (Lapsana communis), Sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus). 

 Amongst garden flowers, the Sun-flower, Dahlia, Aster, and Chrysanthemum belong to this 

 order. Amongst the British species, white or yellow, singly or combined, are the general colours. 

 In turning over a British Flora to test this, we found that ninety-seven of the species figured were 

 of various shades of yellow, and fourteen had the central part yellow, and the outer rays white ; 

 twenty-seven of different tints of pink and purple, one with a yellow centre, surrounded by rays 

 of blue, while three were of blue alone. 



Many of the composite flowers are well adapted to art purposes, the flower-heads being 

 often large and bold in character, and the leaves very frequently richly cut up into good artistic 

 forms. The stellate character of the flowers adapts them well for either vertical or horizontal 

 treatment. Designs, embodying the stellate form characteristic of many of the species, will be 

 seen in figs. 297, 298, 299, in all these cases adaptation for an upright surface being the 

 treatment chosen. 



PLATE 24. 



" Where order in variety we see. 

 And where, though all things difTer, all agree." — Pope. 



"Similitude in dissimilitude." — Wordsworth. 



The Hepatica flower, the Hepatica triloba of botanists, so called from the three distinct 

 lobes of the leaf, is one of those favoured plants that, like the Primrose or the Crocus, form the 

 ever-welcome advance-guard of the floral host, coming as it does in the early Spring, in 

 the bleak days of March, while yet the trees are leafless, and the stern grip of Winter seems 

 scarcely relaxed, and decking the border with its little lilac star-like blossoms. The Hepatica, like 

 most of the flowers of the opening year, does not attain to any height, but shelters itself as best it 



K 



