1889] 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



down the ragweed in their pastures till it is in flower, when, of course, 

 the fruits ripen from the stored up juices contained in the now pros- 

 trate plant, and the seeds are dispersed nearly as freely as if the plant 

 had been allowed to grow on unchecked. And as it is a perennial — 

 sending up fresh stems from the same root every year — it is doubly 

 difficult to eradicate. When growing freely on a bare pasture, so as 

 to be unhampered by the surrounding herbage, the root leaves of rag- 

 weed are simply charming. They often attain a large size, frequently 

 forming a clustering rosette a foot or more in diameter. The individ- 

 ual leaves are most beautifully incised, waved, curled, crimped, and 

 puckered up, rivalling the typical acanthus leaf, or the more homely 

 parsley, in artistic beauty of form. They are seen to best advantage 

 in spring, for when the stems are developed in summer, the radical 

 leaves wither and die off. The stems themselves are very tough, rigid, 

 yet pliant and elastic, almost woody at the base, persisting through 

 the winter till beaten down by heavy snows. They average three 

 feet in height, perfectly simple and erect, clothed with leaves, and 

 branching at the top into level-headed clusters of flowers. To the 

 young botanist, these flowers are at first very puzzling. He misses the 

 well-defined arrangement of the parts into calyx, corolla, stamens, and 

 pistil, with which he may be familiar in the buttercup and rose. 

 What at first sight appears as a single flower, with a tubular green 

 calyx, each of the sepals ending in a black spear-shaped tip, and a 

 corolla of some dozen or more yellow sepals, turns out to be an assem- 

 blage of individual flowers, each essentially perfect, and living to- 

 gether in a social community mutually helpful to each other. What 

 appears a calyx is really an involucre of modified scaly leaves, per- 

 forming the function of protecting the tender ovaries until they have 

 matured the perfect seeds. What is actually the calyx is transformed 

 into the hairs which form the " pappus," and as it is inadequate to 

 the duty of protecting the ovary it peforms the function of flight, and 

 carried the seed to its destination. The outer coloured florets of the 

 ray have their corollas ligulate or strap-shaped, and by their spread- 

 ing attitude make the flowerhead much more conspicuous and 

 attractive. They have acquired this greater glory at the expense of 

 one of their essential organs, that is they contain pistils with styles 

 and stigmas only, being dependent for the pollen to fertilise their 

 ovaries upon the tubular florets of the centre. These central florets, 

 whilst yet unopened, appear like so many pinheads, by and bye they 

 unclose and display a hollow tube, with a slender shaft in the centre ; 

 this is a hollow column formed by the cohering anthers, which are 



