304 



BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



brushes, for this floret is purely female, having no 

 anthers. No pollen requires sweeping out, and, there- 

 fore, brushes, which could effect no purpose, are 

 not formed ; and again, had this floret produced pollen, 

 it could not have been utilised, at least on the same 

 flower-head, since all the florets are proterandrous, 

 the younger in this matter serving the elder, and so 

 absolving the eldest of all from the need of pollen- 



Fig. 64.— A, Capitulum of One of the Composite— rf. Ray-floret B Section 

 of Part of One of the Composite (Cineraria), Magnified Ten times ; 

 Lettering as Fig. 63. 



production. Although the plan throughout the order 

 is so similar that the comprehension of one example 

 gives the key to every other, yet there are variations 

 of detail which must be remembered. Thus in some 

 composite flower-heads every floret bears a ray as in 

 the dandelion ; or all may be tubular and perfect as 

 in the spear thistle ; or the outermost florets neuter 

 as in the corn bluebottle ; or female, as in the case just 

 examined; or monoecious, those of the disk beino- ma l e 



