24 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
stigma or top part of the pistil differs from that of the ligulate 
flowers in that it is not so deeply cleft, and each branch is more 
conical than those of the formerly described stigma (fig. 9). 
They are covered with little processes or projections, which 
seem provided for the entanglement of the pollen grains that 
fall on them. 
At the base of both ligulate and tubular flowers we find the 
fruit which contains a single seed. The structure of the fruits 
of plants is a study of itself, for on careful examination the fruit 
is found to be a very complicated organ. The minute example 
before us has its various parts in as great perfection as the 
largest fruit with which we are familiarly acquainted. There 
is the hardened pericarp (fig. 14), consisting of three mem- 
branes or layers, an external one called the epicarp , a middle 
one or mesocarp, and an inner one, the euclocarp. In other 
fruits the middle layer being frequently of a fleshy or succulent 
nature, is also called the sarcocarp. Around the edge of the 
pericarp there is a sort of ridge or keel, which terminates at 
one end opposite to that where it was attached to the receptacle, 
and from which point the young seed or embryo sprouts forth. 
All over the surface of the fruit are minute depressed hairs, 
excepting on the keel, where there are no hairs to be seen. It 
does not appear that the single seed enclosed within this 
pericarp ever leaves its abode there ; but, as it develops and 
grows, the walls of its habitation divide, and allow it to expand 
and grow beyond them. 
Although this paper has been an attempt to enter as fully as 
possible into the microscopic structure and nature of this most 
interesting plant, there yet remains much to be done worthy 
the attention of the botanical student. The nature of the ger- 
mination of the seed and the development of the earliest forms 
of the plant would supply materials for a series of experiments 
and researches. 
It is well to remember that the forms and conditions of the 
daisy vary very much, according to the soil in which it grows 
and the circumstances under which it is found. In favourable 
soil the leaves attain a larger size, are of a brighter green, and 
the stalks of the flowers are much longer, than when we find 
the plant in poor and barren districts. As it approaches the 
sandy shores of the sea it becomes almost stunted, and produces 
small dark-coloured leaves and minute short-stalked flowers. In 
counting the number of flowers produced on one head under these 
various circumstances, we find that both the ligulate and tubular 
flowers vary from twenty to forty or fifty in number, the colour of 
the ligulate flowers is also very variable, from white tinged with 
pink to a dee]) pink scarcely showing any white whatever. In 
the cultivated garden daisy this is very evident ; the tubular 
