. Flowers and their pedigrees . lmostevery intermediate stage: for instance, among thepea tribe we have all but solitary flowers in the peasand beans, long clusters in the laburnum and wistaria,and compact heads in the clovers. The daisies andother composites, it is true, carry this crowding offlowers somewhat further than almost any otherplants ; but still even here you can trace a gradualprogress, some approach to their habit being made byallied families elsewhere ; while some composites, onthe other hand, have stopped short of the pitch ofdevelopment attained by most of their race. Thus,cer
. Flowers and their pedigrees . lmostevery intermediate stage: for instance, among thepea tribe we have all but solitary flowers in the peasand beans, long clusters in the laburnum and wistaria,and compact heads in the clovers. The daisies andother composites, it is true, carry this crowding offlowers somewhat further than almost any otherplants ; but still even here you can trace a gradualprogress, some approach to their habit being made byallied families elsewhere ; while some composites, onthe other hand, have stopped short of the pitch ofdevelopment attained by most of their race. Thus,certain campanulas have their flowers packed tightly 34 Flowej^s and thm Pcdigi^ees. together into a head, which looks at first sight asingle blossom, just as deceptively as the daisy does ;and a still nearer relative, the scabious, even morestrikingly resembles the composite form. So thatthe daisies and their allies have really only carriedout one step further a system of crowding which hadbeen already begun by many other Fig. 12.—Section of head of Daisy. If you look closely at the daisy, you will see inwhat this crowding consists. The common flower-stalk is flattened out at the end into a regular disk,and on this disk all the florets are seated with noappreciable separate flower-stalks of their own. Out-side them a double row of leaves is arranged, exactlylike the calyx in single flowers, and serving the sameprotective purpose—to preserve the florets from theincursions of unfriendly insects ; while inside, the littleindividual blossoms have almost lost their owncalyxes which are scarcely represented by a few tiny TJie Daisys Pedigree. 35 protuberances upon the seed-like fruit. In the daisy,indeed, we may say that the true calyx has beendwarfed away to nothing ; but in the dandelion andmany other composites a new use has been found forit; it has been turned into those light feathery hairswhich children call the clock, and which aid the dis-persion of the seeds by wa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1884
