NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB

Evening Star, Issue 19891, 13 June 1928, Page 11

NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB

LECTURE OH THE DAISY Miss Dalrymplc, who was tho lecturer for Monday evening, stated that, although her subject, ‘The Daisy,’ might sound a very simple and commonplace one, it really was not, for it opened up a verv wide field of knowledge that could he treated only in a very meagre way. The lecturer dealt first with the little field daisv which grows in most of our lawns, hated by gardeners, loved by poets, and an object of surprising beauty if looked at carefully with a lens. Its very name is interesting. The Anglo-Saxons long ago had observed its habit of opening in the early morning and closing in the evening, an cl so they called it “ the eye of tho day ” or “Day’s eye.” .Now, let ns look at a. good sturdy specimen from the lawn. The part under the soil consists of a thick brown creeping stem, from which silkv white fibrous roots come off, and often from the nodes of that .stem a tuft of leaves grows out and forms a new plant. The leaves all come off from tho same point, and are called radical. That is why the loaves form a rosette on top of the ground, and one of the reasons it thrives so well. The rosette form is a splendid protection not only against grazing animals and lawn mowers, but also against excessive drought. Tho dandelion, capcwced, and I histlc are of a similar form Tbc leavcs of the daisy are very distinctive in shape, just "like green spoons. There is only one head or inflorescence to a stalk,'the head really being a collection of little flowers or florets. A row of green bracts protects each head, and the florets arc of two kinds—tho crim-son-tipped ones on the outside and tho very numerous tiny yellow ones in the centre. It is on this account tho collecting of several flowers on to a common receptacle that tho daisy family gets its name—Composite. The structure of cadi kind of floret is ve.ry interesting. Tho ray or lignlatc fstrapshaped)' floret has a pistil, but no stamens. Tho disc floret is tubular, and has both stamens and pistil. The daisy represents one groat division of the Composite, where tho florets are either ligulato and tubular or tabular only, while the dandelion represents tho second division, with lignlar florets only. In every part of the world daisy plants are found. It lias been estimated that one in every ten flowering plants belongs to the Composite. Think what a large proportion of tho flowers in our gardens are daisies! The gardeners may dislike the lawn daisy, tho groundsel, and the thistle, but what, would they do without the asters that have come from North America and China, the chrysanthemums from Japan, the dahlias from Mexico, and the cinerarias from Tonoriffe. Here in New Zealand the number of composites Ls unusually high, for oneseventh of our native plants are daisies. Miss Dalrymple then proceeded to deal with individual native plants of the daisy family, many of which are very noteworthy. _ Some _ species of olearias and senecios attain die size of small trees., while the cemimisias, cotnlas, etc., are of extreme botanical interest as well as objects of rare beauty. Miss Dalrymple’s lecture was copiously illustrated, and at its coir elusion she was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.