COMPOSITAE. 901 
instead of ligulate. Calyx superior, adnate to the ovary and hardly to be 
distinguished from it; limb either wanting or composed of scales, bristles, 
or hairs, and then called pappus. Corolla gamopetalous, superior, either 
tubular or campanulate with 4-5 valvate lobes, or ligulate with the lobes 
cohering into a strap-shaped lamina which spreads to one side. Stamens 
4-5, inserted on the tube of the corolla and alternate with its lobes; _fila- 
ments usually free; anthers united into a sheath surrounding the style, 
cells sometimes produced at the base into brist-.e-like points or tails. Ovary 
inferior, 1-celled ; style slender, 2-fid, branches short or long, linear, usually 
semi-terete, furnished with variously placed and arranged collecting-hairs 
for sweeping the pollen from the anther-cells, margins stigmatic; ovule 
solitary, erect, anatropous. Fruit a small dry seed-like nut called an achene, 
either crowned by the persistent pappus or naked. Seed erect, with a 
membranous testa; albumen wanting; embryo straight, radicle short, 
inferior. 
A vast family, by far the largest of flowering plants, comprising about 900 genera 
and 13,000 species. It is found in every part of the world, from the Equator to the 
limits of phaenogamic vegetation in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and is equally plen- 
tiful in lowland districts and in mountainous or alpine situations. In New Zealand it 
constitutes rather more than one-seventh of the total number of flowering plants, a 
somewhat large proportion, the ratio of the whole family to the flowering plants of the 
world being generally estimated at about one-tenth. Although so numerous in species, 
the family is far from being proportionately important from an economic point of view. 
Kdible species are singularly few, the chief being the Jerusalem and common artichoke, 
lettuce, and chicory. Oils are yielded by the sunflower and by Madia satwa. The 
chief medicinal plants are arnica, wormwood, and camomile. Many ornamental species 
are cultivated in gardens, as the various kinds of chrysanthemums, dahlias, cinerarias, 
asters, sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds, &c.; but on the whole it must be confessed that 
the majority of the plants composing the family present a weedy and unattractive 
appearance. Of the 3() indigenous genera 16 are widely spread ; 6 extend to Australia 
alone (Brachycome, Olearia, Celmisia, Raoulia, Ewartia, Craspedia), but of these Celmisia 
and Raoulia are very feebly represented outside New Zealand. One genus (Cassinia) 
reaches South Africa as well as Australia; one (Abrotanella) occurs in Australia, 
Tasmania, and Antarctic South America. The six remaining (Pachystegia, Pleurophyllum, 
Haastia, Leucogenes, Brachyglottis, Traversia) are endemic. Many weeds of cultivation 
belonging to the family have become naturalized in the Dominion, a list of over 60 
species being given in the appendix. Most of these are from the Northern Hemisphere, 
and descriptions of nearly all will be found in any British Flora. 
Owing principally to the large size and homogeneous character of the family, very 
great difficulty has always been experienced in arranging the species in suitable genera 
and tribes, and the classification is still in an unsettled state. As there are no import- 
ant differences in the flower and fruit, it becomes necessary to use minor characters, 
such as the shape of the style-hranches ; the sexual differences of the florets composing — 
the heads; the shape of the corolla; the absence or presence of minute tails to the 
anthers; the various modifications of the pappus; and the minute differences in the 
shape and sculpture of the ripe fruit or achene. Considerable practice is required before 
these distinctions can be understood, and a beginner will find it no easy matter to refer 
‘the species to their proper genera. His best plan will be to induce some friend to name 
a few for him, and then to carefully compare these with the specific, generic, and 
ordinal characters given in this book, or in other works on the flora. By so doing he 
will insensibly acquire a practical knowledge of the characters used in distinguishing the 
species and genera which will ultimately enable him to identify them for himself. In 
using the subjoined key to the New Zealand genera it must be remembered that the 
minute differences in the shape of the style-branches, so largely employed to separate 
the tribes from one another, can only be observed in the hermaphrodite florets, the 
style of the female florets being very similar throughout the family. 
SuBORDER TUBULIFLORAE. 
Heads with the florets all tubular and hermaphrodite, or with the 
marginal ones alone ligulate and female or neuter. ts 
