A few members of the order are of economic value, e.g. Lactuca (lettuce; q.v.), Cichorium (chicory; q.v.), Cynara (artichoke and cardoon; q.v.), Helianthus (Jerusalem artichoke). Many are cultivated as garden or greenhouse plants, such as Solidago (golden rod), Ageratum, Aster (q.v.) (Michaelmas daisy), Helichrysum (everlasting), Zinnia, Rudbeckia, Helianthus (sunflower), Coreopsis, Dahlia (q.v.), Tagetes (French and African marigold), Gaillardia, Achillea (yarrow), Chrysanthemum, Pyrethrum (feverfew; now generally included under Chrysanthemum), Tanacetum (tansy), Arnica, Doronicum, Cineraria Calendula (common marigold) (fig. 1), Echinops (globe thistle), Centaurea (cornflower) (fig. 2). Some are of medicinal value, such as Anthemis (chamomile), Artemisia (wormwood), Tussilago (coltsfoot), Arnica. Insect powder is prepared from species of Pyrethrum.
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| Fig. 3.—Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris). | |
| 1. Disk-floret. | 3. Ray-floret. |
| 2. Same cut vertically. | 4. Fruit with pappus. |
The order is divided into two suborders:—Tubuliflorae, characterized by absence of latex, and the florets of the disk being not ligulate, and Liguliflorae, characterized by presence of latex and all the florets being ligulate. The first suborder contains the majority of the genera, and is divided into a number of tribes, characterized by the form of the anthers and styles, the presence or absence of scales on the receptacle, and the similarity or otherwise of the florets of one and the same head. The order is well represented in Britain, in which forty-two genera are native. These include some of the commonest weeds, such as dandelion (Taraxacum Dens-leonis), daisy (Bellis perennis), groundsel (fig. 3) (Senecio vulgaris) and ragwort (S. Jacobaea); coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara) is one of the earliest plants to flower, and other genera are Chrysanthemum (ox-eye daisy and corn-marigold), Arctium (burdock), Centaurea (knapweed and cornflower), Carduus and Cnicus (thistles), Hieracium (hawkweed), Sonchus (sow-thistle), Achillea (yarrow, or milfoil, and sneezewort), Eupatorium (hemp-agrimony), Gnaphalium (cudweed), Erigeron (fleabane), Solidago (golden-rod), Anthemis (may-weed and chamomile), Cichorium (chicory), Lapsana (nipplewort), Crepis (hawk’s-beard), Hypochaeris (cat’s-ear), and Tragopogon (goat’s-beard).
COMPOSITE ORDER, in architecture, a compound of the Ionic and Corinthian orders (see [Order]), the chief characteristic of which is found in the capital (q.v.), where a double row of acanthus leaves, similar to those carved round the Corinthian capital, has been added under the Ionic volutes. The richer decoration of the Ionic capital had already been employed in those of the Erechtheum, where the necking was carved with the palmette or honeysuckle. Similar decorated Ionic capitals were found in the forum of Trajan. The earliest example of the Composite capital is found in the arch of Titus at Rome. The entablature was borrowed from that of the Corinthian order.
COMPOSITION (Lat. compositio, from componere, to put together), the action of putting together and combining, and the product of such action. There are many applications of the word. In philology it is used of the putting together of two distinct words to form a single word; and in grammar, of the combination of words into sentences, and sentences into periods, and then applied to the result of such combination, and to the art of producing a work in prose or verse, or to the work itself. In music “composition” is used both of the art of combining musical sounds in accordance with the rules of musical form, and, more generally, of the whole art of creation or invention. The name “composer” is thus particularly applied to the musical creator in general. In the other fine arts the word is more strictly used of the balanced arrangement of the parts of a picture, of a piece of sculpture or a building, so that they should form one harmonious whole. The word also means an agreement or an adjustment of differences between two or more parties, and is thus the best general term to describe the agreement, often called by the equivalent German word “Ausgleich,” between Austria and Hungary in 1867. A more particular use is the legal one, for an agreement by which a creditor agrees to take from his debtor a sum less than his debt in satisfaction of the whole (see [Bankruptcy]). In logic “composition” is the name given to a fallacy of equivocation, where what is true distributively of each member of a class is inferred to be true of the whole class collectively. The fallacy of “division” is the converse of this, where what is true of a term used collectively is inferred to be true of its several parts. A common source of these errors in reasoning is the confusion between the collective and distributive meanings of the word “all.” Composition, often shortened to “compo,” is the name given to many materials compounded of more than one substance, and is used in various trades and manufactures, as in building, for a mixture, such as stucco, cement and plaster, for covering walls, &c., often made to represent stone or marble; a similar moulded compound is employed to represent carved wood.
COMPOUND (from Lat. componere, to combine or put together), a combination of various elements, substances or ingredients, so as to form one composite whole. A “chemical compound” is a substance which can be resolved into simple constituents, as opposed to an element which cannot be so resolved (see [Chemistry]); a word is said to be a “compound” when it is made up of different words or parts of different words. The term is also used in an adjectival form with many applications; a “compound engine” is one where the expansion of the steam is effected in two or more stages (see [Steam-engine]); in zoology, the “compound eye” possessed by insects and crustacea is one which is made up of several ocelli or simple eyes, set together so that the whole has the appearance of being faceted (see [Eye]); in botany, the “compound leaf” has two or more separate blades on a common leaf-stalk; in surgery, in a “compound fracture” the skin is broken as well as the bone, and there is a communication between the two. There are many mathematical and arithmetical uses of the term, particularly of those forms of addition, multiplication, division and subtraction which deal with quantities of more than one denomination. Compound interest is interest paid upon interest, the accumulation of interest forming, as it were, a secondary principal. The verb “to compound” is used of the arrangement or settlement of differences, and especially of an agreement made to accept or to pay part of a debt in full discharge of the whole, and thus of the arrangement made by an insolvent debtor with his creditors (see [Bankruptcy]); similarly of the substitution of one payment for annual or other periodic payments,—thus subscriptions, university or other dues, &c., may be “compounded”; a particular instance of this is the system of “compounding” for rates, where the occupier of premises pays an increased rent, and the owner makes himself responsible for the payment of the rates. The householder who thus compounds with the owner of the premises he occupies is known as a “compound householder.” The payment of poor rate forming part of the qualification necessary for the parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom, various statutes, leading up to the Compound Householders Act 1851, have enabled such occupiers to claim to be placed on the rate. In law, to compound a felony is to agree with the felon not to prosecute him for his crime, in return for valuable consideration, or, in the case of a theft, on return of the goods stolen. Such an agreement is a misdemeanour and is punishable with fine and imprisonment.
The name “compounders” was given during the reign of William III. of England to the members of a Jacobite faction, who were prepared to restore James II. to the throne, on the condition of an amnesty and an undertaking to preserve the constitution. Until 1853, in the university of Oxford, those possessing private incomes of a certain amount paid special dues for their degrees, and were known as Grand and Petty Compounders.