What shall we call it? To what shall we liken it? To a gilded button framed in a pearl. This button, this "yellow eye," as Tabernæmontanus, a botanist of the sixteenth century, named it,--the "eye of day" of our old poets,--a drop of gold in a rim of silver,--is not like any other flower; is quite a world or system of Lilliputian blossoms, each of which is represented by a miniature tube, yellow at the summit, and of a greenish white at the base,--the said tube being the union, or combination, of the tops or summits forming the central gem, the gilded button, the drop of gold. You may readily note this arrangement in the larger variety of daisy, the _Chrysanthemum leucanthum_ of Linnæus,--two Latinised Greek words which signify, literally, "golden-blossomed white flower." If you doubt whether each of these tiny tubes be a flower, you have only to analyse them with the assistance of your ever-useful lens. The analysis of one will suffice; for all the others resemble it. Now, with your penknife, split the tube throughout its entire length: you will thus lay bare all the parts which enter into the composition of a veritable flower, commencing with the most conspicuous. Through the magnifying glass you can see five stamens,--free as regards their short filaments, but united by their elongated anthers; a characteristic which gives name to the great family of the _Synantheraceæ_, of which family our daisy is an honoured member;--a bifid (_i.e._, cloven in two) style traversing the middle of the anthers, which form for it a kind of sheath (see Fig. 31, _a_);--a monopetalous, tubular, and obscurely bilabiated (two-lipped) corolla, inserted at the summit of an unilocular (one-lobed) ovary, which is attached to the calyx (see Fig. 31, _b_). In these tiny flowers, then, which we call in Latin _flosculi_, in French _fleurons_, in English _florets_, nothing is deficient. As they are shaped like tubes, we call them, by way of distinction, _tubulifloral_. But what are these white rays, lightly shaded with pink, which enclose or encircle the florets? (See Fig. 32, _a_.) Examine them at their points of insertion. You will perceive there some traces of reproductive organs, among which the style is most prominent. As for the corolla, it is represented only by its brown lip, which is immeasurably developed. It is this exaggerated development which constitutes the _white rays_, or petals, that prove so attractive to the eye. (See Fig. 32, _b_.) Do not forget to observe, by the way, that they are rose-tinted only on the side which directly undergoes the action of the light. To distinguish them from the tubular florets,--the _tubulifloræ_,--these "white rays" have been called _ligulate florets_, or _ligulifloræ_.