Every flower lover knows that asters, daisies, sunflowers and the like belong to that class which botanists call Composite; and every one knows that scientific people have had a great deal of interesting talk about the way insects are unconsciously employed in cross-fertilizing flowers. That a number of flowers would never produce seeds except through this agency of insects is unquestionable. The " Adam's Needle," or Yucca, is a well known illustration of this. Unfortunately for true science, popular writers get hold of that which is true and " run it into the ground." A writer of the Grant Allen type, is now giving a series of letters to the Country Gentleman, on the fertilization of flowers, which is very pretty reading, but at the same time an excellent illustration of the " running into the ground " type. Here is an extract in relation to Compositae:

" Now we are ready to see how the pollen is scattered. In the first place, since the pollen is discharged into the tube, and the stigmas, while crowding through it, are pressed tightly together, it is clear that the flower cannot be fertilized by its own pollen. How, then, does fertilization take place? Simply in this way: The two branches of the style, on their way up the tube formed by the anthers, push the pollen out, and get powdered on the outer surface with it. Then they separate, and the styles of the several flowers form a network of interlacing threads over the compound head. Then when an insect visits the cluster - and many of them do - it is sure to brush against some of the pollen-covered styles and gets its under parts powdered with the yellow grains, some of which will be almost certain to get on the stigmatic surfaces".

Now it has been shown in numerous scientific contributions, the few past years, that whatever may be said of other classes of plants, Compositae are self-fertilizers.

It is the simplest thing in the world to prove this, by tying a gauze net over the flowers and excluding insects. The flowers produce perfect seeds in every case. One of the most interesting accounts on record is the experience of Mrs. Walcott, of Boston, communicated to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1884. She tied gauze over the heads of her sunflowers to keep sparrows from pecking at them. The heads produced seeds all the same, and numbers of just such experiences are on record, and can be easily repeated. Yet we have these pretty writings continually asserting that the "flower cannot be fertilized by its own pollen," in spite of what is becoming an "every-day" fact, that it is so fertilized. One would think that that which comes to pass, must surely be possible.

It is such a simple thing to put a gauze bag over a dandelion or an ox-eye daisy, to keep out the bees, and so certain to find them seeding as freely as when bees have full access, that it is amazing to find writers pegging away on the impossibility of seed under such circumstances.

It has been shown how the pollen tubes enter to accomplish their " impossible " work in these cases - but the fact is a sufficient answer, without this explanation.