STUDY OF BOTANY. 
27 
COMPOUND FLOWERS. 
Though there is still a great ileal wanting to complete our ideas of 
the five former tribes of plants, and I have not always known how to 
adapt my descriptions to the understanding of our young botanists, 
I flatter myself that 1 have given such an idea of them as to render, 
after a lew months, herberization, the air, port, an 1 habit, familiar to 
them, so that when they see a plant they may conjecture nearly whe¬ 
ther it belong to one of these five tribes, and to which of them, pro¬ 
vided always, that by an analysis of the fructification, they afterwards 
see whether they may not have been deceived in their conjecture. 
The umbellate plants may have thrown some embarrassment in the 
way, which, however, may be escaped by means of the hints sub¬ 
joined to my descriptions. It is not the nomenclature of a parrot 
that I wish them to acquire, but a real science, and one of the most 
delightful possible. I go on, therefore, to our sixth tribe, before I 
take a more methodical road. It may perhaps embarrass as much, 
if not more than the last. 
Take one of those little flowers commonly known as the daisy, 
(Beilis perenis.) Look at it well, for by its appearance, I am sure 
you will be surprised when I say that this flower, which is so small 
and delicate, is really composed of between two and three hundred 
other flowers, all of them perfect; that is having each its corolla, 
germ, pistil, stamens, and seed; in a word, as perfect as the flower of 
the lily. Every one of those leaves, which form a kind of crown to 
the flower, appearing like so many petals, is in reality so many true 
flowers, and every one of those tiny yellow things in the centre like 
stamens is a real flower. If your fingers were already exercised in 
botanical dissections, and armed with the necessary apparatus and 
plenty of patience, I might convince you of this. 
Let us avoid all ambiguity as to the word flower, by calling it com¬ 
pound, and giving the name of floscules or florets to the component 
flowers, but let us not forget that each of these florets is a genuine 
flower. You have observed two kinds of flowers in the daisy, the 
yellow ones which occupy the middle of the flower, where we shall 
leave the name of florets, and the little white tongues or straps which 
surround them, and which we will call semi-florets. These two sorts 
of florets are combined in the compound flowers, in such a way as to 
divide the whole tribe into three distinct sections. 
Section 1st,—Consisting of those which are entirely composed of 
semi-florets, both in the middle, which is called the disk, and cir¬ 
cumference, called the ray or radius; these are called semi-flosculous 
