RIVER BANKS— BROOKS— RUNNING STREAMS 9 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



The largest of all the botanical families is the Composite. 

 It contains one-tenth of all the known species of flowering 

 plants, one-eighth of which are indigenous to North America. 

 The Composites were called compound flowers by older bot- 

 anists. They are, in reality, many small flowers united in a 

 close head, called a disk, upon a flat or conical receptacle, either 

 with or without petal-like rays, and all surrounded by an in- 

 volucre of calyx-like leaves. The disk of the daisy contains 

 from two hundred to five \m<a6x&6. florets. Examined under 

 the magnifying-glass, each floret is seen to have its own tiny 

 calyx, whose tube is joined to the one-celled ovary containing 

 a single dry achene for a seed. The top of the calyx takes 

 different forms, and is of assistance in classifying the flower. 

 In the daisy it is cut off abruptly; in the chicory, it is cup- 

 shaped ; in the sunflower, a pair of rabbit-like ears ; in the 

 sneezeweed, five scales ; in thistles, tufts of hairs ; in the dan- 

 delion, such tufts raised on a long handle, etc. These devel- 

 opments of the calyx-top are called /fi!//«J'. A single bract 

 grows outside the calyx, called chaff. The corolla is tubular, 

 with five points at the summit. The five stamens form a ring 

 with their anthers, which open on the inside and discharge 

 their pollen upon a pistil yet unripe. This, with its two-cleft 

 style, as it grows, carries the pollen with it, and the visiting 

 insect collects it on its body and conducts it to another flower, 

 whose pistil is ripe, bringing about cross-fertilization. 



This great family is divided into two series — TubuliflorcB, or 

 tubular flowers, and Liguliflorce, or strap-shaped flowers. In 

 the first series all the flowers of the disk are tubular. In 

 many, but not all of these, there are ray-'flowers arranged along 

 the margin, which, upon examination, will be found to contain 

 a pistil only, or neither pistil nor stamens. The daisy is an 

 example of tubuliflorae. 



The liguliflorae have strap-shaped, flat corollas in the disk- 



