Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-28

| seeds similar equipage. While the deli.
| cacy of the hairy bristles and their number
| vary throughout the more than forty rec.
| ognized species, the pappus is never absent
| in any of this great family whose floral
| beauty is SO much admired. Lettuce,
| which may be found wild by the borders Of
| many field and thicket as we'll as in gar
den patches, is another generous plume
bearer. Its pappus is much less tenacious
than that of the thistle, but very soft and
white. The arrangement, too, is different,
in SO much that the seed bears the spread
| ing, hairy panicle above it somewhat like
| an umbrella. or parachute. In this respect
| 1t very closely resembles the downy seed OF
| the dandelion which blows in clouds from
many pasture or neglected lot through all
the summer and fall. A comparison OF the
two seeds will. show in moment how
| widely different the thistle pIumes are from
/ the down Of the familiar dandelion.
The colos OF these plumes varies in diff
ferent families as widely as do their num-
Der and delic4cy The copious pappus of
the rattIesnake root (nsbulus albus) is a
deep cinnamon, while in . larger species of
the same family In. altissimus) it is dirty
white and in the half-dozen other branches
Of the family, straw color. The single row
of fragile hairs that constitutes the bristIv
crown OF the seed in hawkweed (hieracium)
10 also tawny, and in the whitish Towering
freweed (errchthites) of the clearings, the
yellow-howered grounded (senecio) and
most of the other families, whose seeds
bear pappi, the color is white, in some
cases being very bright and iustroua
Th. Botany Of the Pappus.
This difference Of. color is easily under
stood when it is remembered that this pap
pus of the seed 10 only the caIyx of the
flower. Botanically considered it bears the
same relation to these achenia of the order
OF composite as the delicately tinted sepals
do to their seed. In other words, the
regular parts OF flower, and not freak or
adherence to the seed is not surprising, fer
in many very different orders the calyx
does not fall away until the seeds are gone,
while the peculiar form Is easily accounted
for by the fact that the flowers have been
crowded into compact heads, so that what is
commonly spoken 6f as the flower ofthistle,
aster or dandelion, is in fact Q multitude OF
flowers gathered compactly together and
bound by peculiar lfgature known botani-
cally as an involuere
Out of these hard conditions, this delicate,
Wonderfully Deautl1ul STRUCTURE came, In
design and delicacy doubtless far surprising
the original caly1 We can almost imagine
1t as reward OF discomfort, the evolution
of suffering in plant life, since sometimes
the sweetest traits Of our own human nature
como from similar sources
suffering r. fines and Beauties.
The parallel holds good also in that not
all these families Of composite, with their
fowerets crowded so compactly together,
have evolved such beautiful pappus. In
many the calyx is but few scales of little
or beauty, and it would seem
to be true in the floral world as with man.
kind, that oniy here and there are char
acters that suffering will refine and beau
Eify.
The Importance of these feathery sails to
the seeds and their great assistance in
spreading the species far and wide is ap-
parent, 1t is believed that to them the |
Azores Islands owe the existence of num-
Der Of plant species whose seeds bad been |
borne to the pappus plumes across thou
,and miles of ocean from European shores.
A few decades ago the common thistle and |
ts Canada cousin were rare in many Sec
ions of the country. To-day no waste spot
d SO poor but that it gives them life. In
possibly not more than q century they have
,onquered continent as completely and
rs resistlsssly a. modern civilization.
SAMUEL G. MCCLURE