176 
COMPOUND FLOWEES. 
But if plants v/ith five stamens have their antihers united, witli 
no other resemblance to the Syngenesious plants, they are re- 
tained in the fifth class ; the violet and impatiens are examples 
of this irregularity. This is an instance in which the artificial 
arrangement is made to bend to natural alliances. The term 
comjpound flowers was formerly applied to flowers crowded 
together on the same receptacle {rachis\ and surrounded by a 
set of bracts or scales, forming an involucrum. These flowers 
have been distinguished into tubular^ when the corolla of the 
perfect flov/ers forms a regular five-toothed tube ; and this 
division is subdivided into flowers with heads discoid^ and 
heads radiate; the second division is composed of florets 
where all are Ugulate or strap- shaped, perfect, and arranged 
in a radiating head. The whole natural order is termed the 
Compositce^ sometimes the Asteraceoe. 
258. The compound flowers (or Compositee, as now called) 
begin to blossom in the latter part of summer, and are found 
bordering upon the verge of winter. The dandelion is among 
the earliest flowers of spring, and one of the latest of autumn. 
The daisy is found in almost every spot which exhibits any 
marks of fertility ; these are not single flowers, like the violet 
or rose, but crowded clusters of little florets. The sun-flower 
(Helianthus) is considered as a type of the natural order Com- 
positoB^ which is sometimes called the sun-flower tribe. We 
distinguish the sun-flower into two parts — the dish^ which is 
the middle of the flower, and supposed to have resemblance to 
the middle or body of the sun ; the ray is the border of the 
flower, or those florets which spread out from the disk, as rays 
of light diverge from the sun. The inflorescence of the disk 
florets is centripetal^ or from the circumference toward the cen- 
ter ; the florets gradually expand. On examining a tubular 
disk floret, it is found to be perfect, containing one pistil sur- 
rounded by five stamens, forming by their united anthers a 
tube around the pistil. The florets of the ray are called neutral, 
having neither stamens nor pistils ; the circumstance of neutral 
Horets in the ray places the sun-flower in the order Frustmoiea^ 
of the class Syngenesia. 
259. A Clover blossom is a collection of many little flowers 
united — but each little floret of the clover has its own calyx ; 
there is no general calyx inclosing the whole, as in most of the 
Syngenesious plants ; the anthers are separate, the filainents 
connected at their sides^ which circumstance, together with the 
papilionaceous form of the corolla, places the clover in the 
class Diadelphia. 
258. Composita, when found in bloom 7— Describe the sun-flower.— 259. How does a jlover blossora 
ditfer from a compound Hower ? 
