168 
NATURAL FAMILIES. 
CLASS 10 . 
Dicotyledons Corolla monopetalous epigynous, (above the 
germ.) Anthers united. 
This class contains several families which may all be included 
under, the general term compound Jloicers. 
The flowers of this family begin to blossom in the latter part 
of summer, and are found almost 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. 
The dandelion is not a single flower like a violet or rose, but 
a crowded cluster of little flowers. The sun-flower is so large 
and conspicuous as doubtless to have frequently attracted your 
notice. If you would examine one carefully you would find it 
to be composed of more than a hundred florets or little flowers, 
each as perfect in its kind as a lily, having its corolla, stamens, 
pistil and seed. 
We distinguish the Sun-flower into two parts. — the disk, 
which is the middle of the flower, and supposed to have resem- 
blance 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 florets in this, as in 
other compound flowers, do not all begin to expand at the same 
time, they usually begin at the disk and proceed inwards to- 
wards the centre. 
If you examine with a microscope one of the florets of the 
disk, you will perceive it to be tubular, containing one pistil sur- 
rounded by five stamens, which are separate, but the five anthers 
grow together, forming a tube around the pistil. 
It is this union of anthers which gives to this kind of com- 
pound flowers a place in the class Syngenesia, which name sig- 
nifies anthers growing together. The florets of the ray are cal- 
led neutral, having neither stamens nor pistils : the circumstance 
of neutral florets in the ray places the sun- flower in the order 
Frustranea of the 17th class. 
Although the term compound is confined to the flowers of the 
class Syngenesia, the real circumstance on which the class is 
founded is not the compound character of the flower, but the 
union of the anthers. A Clover blossom may be said to be com- 
pound, because it is a collection of many little flowers compound- 
ed or united into one ; but each little floret of the clover has its 
own calyx ; there is no general calyx enclosing the whole, as in 
most of the Syngenesious plants, but the florets are arranged in 
Class tenth — Dicotyledons — Includes compound flowers — Dandelion — 
Daisy — Sunflower — Clover. 
