THE MICHAELMAS DAISY 227 
mark the inferiority of the vegetable kingdom in the 
neighbourhood of the sea^ gives the following melancholy 
picture of the plants of a small town on the coast : 
“ Where thrift and lavender and lad’s-love* bloom, 
There fed, by food they love, to rankest size, 
Around the dwellings docks and wormwood rise. 
Here the strong mallow strikes her slimy root; 
Here the dull nightshade, hangs her deadly fruit ; 
On hills of dust the henbane’s faded green, 
And penciird flower of sickly scent, is seen; 
At the wall’s base the fiery nettle springs, 
With fruit globose and fierce with poisoned stings ; 
Above (the growth of many a year) is spread 
The yellow level of the stone-crop’s bed; 
In every chink delights the fern to grow, 
With glossy leaf, and tawny bloom below : 
These with our sea-weeds, rolling up and down, 
Form the contracted flora of our town.” 
The v/ild Michaelmas-daisy blooms in August and Sep- 
tember, and is about two or three feet in height. It is not 
unusual to find specimens of this plant in which the rays 
are wanting, and the flower of which consists only in the 
yellow centre or disk. 
The Michaelmas-daisy is an instance of a very numerous 
order of plants, which bear what are called compound 
flowers ; and as a little observation will enable anyone to 
recognise blossoms of this kind, it may be desirable to 
explain their nature. A compound flower is one which 
consists of a number of small flowers situated on one point 
of insertion (receptacle), and enclosed in a calyx. The 
yellow centre of these flowers will, upon examination, be 
seen to be formed of several distinct little flowers, each 
one as perfect as is the tulip or any other large blossom, 
and having its own complement of pistils, stamens, germ, 
and seed. If the rays surrounding the blossoms of a com- 
pound flower be pulled away from it, each ray may be 
seen to have at its base a small tabular flower ; so that 
* Lad’S'love is a village name for southern wood, which is 
very common on salt shores. 
