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850 
cichoraceee, labiatifloree, carduacese, asteres, eu- 
patorice, Jacobex, helianthese, ambrosiacez, and 
anthemidiz, — and subdivides the cichoraceze 
into seven groups, and the carduacez into four 
groups. A popular view of the latter distribu- 
tion exhibits all the composite in seventeen 
groups, under the representation of respectively 
hawkweed, dandelion, cat’s-ear, lettuce, scorzon- 
era, chicory, leria, true-thistle, globe-thistle, ver- 
nonia, everlasting, starwort, eupatorium, ground- 
sel, sunflower, ambrosia, and chamomile. 
A large proportion of the composite are showy, 
and many possess a considerable or even great 
degree of elegance and beauty; yet very few are 
popularly regarded as ornamental, and only dah- 
lias, cinerarias, Chinese chrysanthemums, sun- 
flowers, marigolds, arctotises, China asters, cen- 
tauries, and daisies are generally to be found in 
gardens. A considerable proportion of them have 
yellow-coloured flowers; but many have other 
colours; and some are remarkable for either the 
variegation or the brilliance of their tints. A 
comparatively great number are more or less 
medicinal; and a fair proportion are subservient 
to the purposes of the kitchen or to the arts. 
Familiar examples of medicinal composite are 
chamomile, colt’s-foot, tansy, worm-wood, mari- 
gold, golden-rod, lettuce, eupatorium, and arnica ; 
and familiar examples cf culinary and esculent 
composite are artichoke, cardoon, succory, salsafy, 
scorzonera, lettuce, and endive. 
COMPOST. A mixed manure, or fertilizing 
compound. Composts for the purposes of the florist 
are exceedingly numerous; most of them consist 
wholly or principally of organic matters; many 
are compounded with the view of uniting the 
powers of several organic manures; and not a 
few are intended to act by both feeding and 
stimulating, or to combine the highest possible 
chemical force with the utmost practicable or- 
ganic adaptation. All these composts supersede 
ordinary manures, or possess the character of 
either specific or superlative fertilizers. But 
composts for the farm are supplementary to or- 
dinary manures; they are used, not because com- 
mon manures are unsuitable, but because they 
are comparatively scarce or dear; and all, or 
almost all, are mixtures of mineral and organic 
matters,—the mineral matters of most being pre- 
ponderant, and the organic matters, till subjected 
to the chemical processes of the compost, being 
worthless and refractory. Specific horticultural 
composts are occasionally noticed in our articles 
on the plants for which they are used; and only 
the most common or remarkable agricultural 
manures can claim to be noticed in the present 
article. 
A very common compost is formed by .a mix- 
ture of lime with weeds, hedge-clippings, dry 
leaves, and other refuse vegetable matters of the 
kind which are sometimes burnt for the prepara- 
tion of manurialashes. See the article AsHus. By 
| the action of lime upon refuse vegetable matters, 
COMPOST. 
a soluble manure is formed, the refractory and 
worthless character of the refuse vegetables is 
destroyed, the hard and fibrous or the succulent 
and spongy organisms are decomposed, and a 
mass of putrid matter results, opulent in the ele- 
ments of vegetable nutrition, and both chemically 
and mechanically fit to be absorbed by the spon- 
gioles of the cereal grasses or of other agricultural 
plants. This compost contains all the saline in- 
gredients of the vegetable refuse employed in its 
formation, and, as respects these ingredients, is 
as powerfully manurial as ashes of corresponding 
character; and it also contains most of the 
organic matters which the combustive process of || 
incineration would have driven off in aeriform de- 
composition, and, as respects these, is much more 
powerfully manurial than ashes. It wants indeed 
the carbonate of potash which ashes possess; but 
it contains in lieu of it an excess of lime, and 
can, by means of this, perform as high and valu- 
able a chemical action as if carbonate of potash 
were abundantly present. Yet dearth of lime, 
preponderance of ligneous matter in the vegeta- 
ble refuse, or any one of a dozen other circum- 
stances, may sometimes render the preparation 
of this compost less economical than the pre- 
paration of ashes; and when lime is cheap, the 
preparation of compost with the succulent and 
herbaceous portions of the vegetable refuse, and 
the preparation of ashes with the woody and 
twiggy portions of it, may be the most advan- 
tageous method. A compost of lime and vege- 
table refuse ought, whenever circumstances ad- 
mit, to be enriched with the addition of vege- 
table ashes, and especially of animal refuse. 
Another very common compost, often good, 
sometimes bad, occasionally execrable, and very 
seldom rightly understood, is a decomposing mix- 
ture of peat and lime, or of peat and farm-yard 
dung. Peat, in its natural condition, is a foe to 
all useful vegetation,—insoluble in itself, and so 
saturated with antiseptic properties as to pre- 
vent the beneficial action of all other substances ; 
but when decomposed by means of lime, or of 
farm-yard dung, it loses its bad qualities, and 
surrenders its organic and saline elements as 
available food for other plants. Yet any compost 
with peat can be economical only when suitable 
materials for it can be readily and cheaply ob- 
tained; and never, in even its richest combina~ 
tions or with its highest possible power, can it 
compare with some other common manures, es- 
pecially with bones, guano, or farm-yard dung. 
When lime is cheap, and peat exists upon the 
spot, a compost may be made of them, suitable 
for most of the purposes of the farm ; and when 
farm-yard dung is scarce, and peat can be obtain- 
ed in the vicinity, a compost of seven parts of the 
| dung, and twenty-one parts of the peat, though 
much inferior to the mere dung in quality, will 
so greatly exceed it in quantity and in disper- 
siveness as to be very decidedly advantageous. 
The best kind of peat for any compost is the kind 
