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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
and fall off, still remain bleached almost white, and are familiar 
to us in the dandelions and thistles, where they are wafted 
away by the wind, like parachutes, bearing at their base 
the tiny fruit which is to perpetuate the plant. Inside the tube 
of the corolla we find the stamens, usually numbering five, 
sometimes four; they are adherent by their filaments to the 
corolla, and the anthers are united to each other in every case. 
This union of the anthers is one of the chief characters of the 
plants belonging to the order Composites. 
The fruit of Compositous plants consists of a single httle nut, 
placed immediately on the receptacle, below the pappus, to 
which it is attached, and this nut contains a single seed. The 
appearance of these fruits differs but slightly in the tubular 
and ligulate florets. In the disk, or central portion of the flower, 
the pappus which crowns the fruit is more perfect than in the 
ray, and frequently one of its hairs is elongated into a sort of 
stiff bristle. 
The involucre has the power of opening when the flower 
expands, and of closing when the florets fall off, in order to 
inclose the young seed, and to protect it while ripening ; it also 
opens and turns quite back as the fruits increase in size and 
become matured. This is particularly remarkable in the dan- 
delion. 
In order to facilitate the arrangement of this family of plants, 
it has been divided by botanists into three sub-orders. 
First, Cichoracece, the Chicory or Lettuce sub-order or section, 
in which both the ray and the disk are composed of ligulate 
flowers alone, to the exclusion of all tubular ones. They are 
remarkable for their stems yielding a white, milky juice, which, 
when concentrated, has a soporific quality in some species. Some 
plants of this section are esculent, and are eaten as salads, such 
as the lettuce ( Lactuca sativaj. 
The second section, or sub-order, is known by the name 
Gynarocephake, the Thistle-headed section. They have no ligu- 
late florets, but consist entirely of tubular florets, generally 
very wide at the mouth. The common artichoke (Gynara 
Scolymus) , as well as the various forms of thistles, belongs to 
this division. 
The third section of Compositas is the sub-order Corymb if eroe, 
the Chamomile section, with heads composed of both sorts of 
flowers, tubular and ligulate ; the tubular ones are in the disk, 
the ligulate in the ray, hence they are called radiate. To this 
sub-order belong the asters, hence it is also called Asteracece. 
This is by far the largest section of Composite plants. To this 
division belong the Michaelmas Daisies, the Chamomile ( Art fb cm is 
nob ills) , Leopard’s-bane ( Arnica montanaj , the Dahlias of our 
gardens, the common Sunflower (HeUanthus annuus) , the Colts- 
