4 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
single flower is really a head of many flowers, or 
florets, all clustered together. Go out and gather 
a specimen, and look carefully into it; you will be 
able to find one almost any time in the year. You 
will at once see that it has a yellow centre, and a 
white fringe. If you have a magnifying-glass, 
examine the specimen more closely by its aid. You 
can now see that the yellow centre, or disc, is com- 
posed of about two hundred little flowers, with their 
tiny yellow petals united to form five-cleft tubes, 
each floret being possessed of all the essential organs 
of a flower. The white fringe, you will find, is made 
up of about fifty “ray ”’ florets, each floret being a 
lady flower, with a single strap-like, white, crimson- 
tipped petal and a pistil, or female organ. 
I hope you have secured a complete plant—flower- 
head, root, and leaves. Notice that the stem from 
which the leaves spring is fairly stout and strong, 
and that it lives un ierground, sending rootlets into 
the earth. You may see specimens with two or 
more sets of leaves and flowers springing from 
different points of the same stem. The leaves form 
a neat rosette, and are generally found pressed down 
on to the ground, especially on lawns. 
Now let our little friend tell its own story : 
‘““Many ages ago my ancestors were somewhat 
different in appearance from my kind to-day. They 
had rather long flower-stalks, which bore flowers, 
each with a separate little stalk, and arranged some. 
what after the manner of the flowers of the common 
currant, and each flower on the stalk was complete 
in itself, : 
“In those very early days of my kind there was a 
