208 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[October 



attached by exceedingly slender threads to the sides of the corolla 

 tube. As the floret matures, the style forces its way upwards 

 through the staminal cylinder, pushing the orange yellow pollen dust 

 before it ; as soon as it emerges from the encircling anthers it unfolds 

 its forked style, which ultimately curls backwards, and exposes the 

 stigmatic surfaces to be fertilised by the pollen of adjacent florets. 

 Thus is manifested in these compound flowers the marvellous co- 

 relation of forces, the harmonious adaptation of means to an end, 

 which pervades the minutest of nature's works. We see a wondrous 

 community of interests by the aggregation of a number of minute 

 flowers into one large head, which is rendered yet more conspicuous 

 by the outer ray florets, and these, with striking self-abnegation, have 

 developed large coloured petals at the expense of their stamens, and 

 are, therefore, now dependent for their fertilisation upon their less 

 showy, but yet functionally perfect tubular brethren. Again, although 

 each little floret produces only a solitary seed, the general result is a 

 large number on one head, just as a single flower of a pea or a poppy 

 produces a great number of seeds. The careful student will soon find 

 numerous instances of equally fascinating socialism or communism 

 in plants. 



The natural order Composite is the largest in the vegetable kingdom, 

 its chief characteristic being the aggregation of its individually small 

 florets into little colonies or flower-heads. Many of our best known 

 florist's flowers belong to this order, such as Dahlias, Asters, Mari- 

 golds, Chrysanthemums, &c. Senecio is one of the largest genera, 

 including some 500 species, of which about ten are indigenous and 

 several more naturalised in Britain. After the ragwort, the most 

 generally distributed and best known is the " groundsel " 5. vulgaris, 

 a most inveterate weed of gardens, rivalling the chickweed in its 

 obnoxiousness to*the gardener, and even excelling it in its persistence 

 of blooming. There is not a month in the year but what in neglected 

 gardens and waste places its inconspiuous yellow flowers, and silvery 

 white pappus of the mature fruit may be observed. As the school- 

 boy's rhyme says : — 



" Through storm and wind, 



Sunshine and shower ; 

 Still will you find 

 Groundsel in flower." 



Its flowers are remarkable for the total absence of the ligulate ray 

 florets, being all tubluar, although a variety has been met with in 

 which a ray has become developed. It bears a rural repute as an 



