91 4 SIXTEFNTIL EVENING.

T. You may remark taat there are five chives to
cacn, the tips of which unite into a tube, through
which the pointal passes, having its semmit double, and
curled back.

H. Tcan just make it out with the glass, but hardly
with the naked eye.

7. Jtis from this circumstance of the tips of the
chives growing together, that Linneus has taken his
distinction of the whole class, and he has named it
Syngenesia, from two Greek words having that signifi-
cation. You will farther observe, that all these florets
stand upon a stool, or receptacle, at the bottom of the
flower, which is the cushion left on the dandelion stalk
after the seeds are blown away. Intu this the seeds
are slightly stuck, which are one apiece to every
pertect or fertile floret. This is the general structure
of the compound flowers.

ff, Are all their seeds feathered ?

Z. Not all. These of the daisy are not. But in a
great many species they are.

ff, | should have thought these were a very useful
class of plants, by the pains nature has taken to spread
them, 1f you had not told us that thistles, and ragwort,
and groundsel were some of them.

“. And if you do not confine your idea of usefulness
to what 1s serviceable to man, but extend it to the
whole creation, you may safely conclude, from their
abundance, that they must be highly useful in the
general economy of nature. It fact, no plants feed a
greater number of insects, and none are more important
to the small birds, to whom they furnish food by their
seeds, and a fine warm down for lining their nests,
On the approach of winter, you may see whole flocks
of linnets and goldfinches pecking among the thistles ;
and you know that groundsel is a favourite treat to
birds ina cage. ‘Tio man, however, they are, for the
most part, troublesome and unsightly weeds. Burdock,
thistles, and yarrow, overrun his hedge-banks ; dande-
lion and hawk-weed, which much resemble them, fill