HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



101 



acquaintance with the two species, and is sufficiently 

 interested, will kindly forward the writer a few 

 specimens of both, an elucidation of this question 

 may follow. Specimens so sent should be placed in 

 a small tube containing dilute glycerine, otherwise 

 they will be useless for the purpose they would 

 have to serve. 



STUDIES OF COMMON PLANTS. 



No. V. 



The Dandelion (Leoniodon taraxacum). 



By E. A. Swan, B.A. 



IN selecting this subject for the present essay, I had 

 considerable doubts whether it was possible for 

 me to introduce anything interesting or novel in 

 reference to it. So much has been written and said 

 about all our common plants that it is exceedingly 

 difficult, in writing about any particular one, to throw 

 any fresh light on its structure and development. 

 Take the plant now before us. What botanist is not 



Fig. 63. Fig. 64. Fig. 63. 



Fig. 66. 



Fig. 67. 



familiar with it ? And yet I venture to hope that my 

 observations may prove not altogether uninstructive, 

 though they deal with a well-worn theme. If, too, 

 any of my deductions are inaccurate, I have no doubt 

 that some good friend will quickly set me right. 



Everybody is aware of the persistence of the 

 dandelion in thrusting itself on their notice. Its 

 extraordinary vitality cannot but be an object of 

 wonder. Its long tapering root, going down deep 

 into the earth, is simple enough ; but it has in itself 

 the power of renewing the plant above ground, how- 

 ever frequently that may be cut off. Over and over 

 again the experiment can be tried with the same 

 result ; so much so that I am not surprised at the 

 ancients believing, in their ingenuous mode of 

 reasoning, that a plant which was so difficult to kill 

 would tend to give health and strength to those who 

 took it as medicine. 



If the bright yellow flower-head be dissected, it 

 will be seen how excellent are all its adaptations ; and 

 I have no hesitation in saying that any one who would 

 take the time and trouble to make it a special study 

 would find himself well repaid at the conclusion of 

 his labours. There are two or more whorls of bracts, 

 some of the outermost ones assuming the shapes 

 depicted in Figs. 63, 64, and 65 (evidencing that they 

 are modified leaves), while all the rest are ligulate. 

 Next comes a whorl of perfect florets, each petal 



constituting the corolla being ligulate, and having on 

 the outside a wide green band extending the entire 

 length, which appears, though narrower, in the 

 individual members of the next whorl, and also, 

 though narrower still, in the next, showing, as far as 

 colour can be any index, the gradual conversion of a 

 bract into a corolla. Then we have whorl after whorl 

 of florets packed together with marvellous closeness. 

 But to particularise : each floret is a perfect flower ; 

 corolla five-lobed, joined in a tube at the lower part, 

 standing on a rudimentary calyx, from which spring 

 fine hairs ; below the calyx, the stalk surmounting the 

 achene ; then the stamens, joined in a tube and five- 

 lobed, the filaments below being affixed to the corolla ; 

 inside the stamens the pistil, which is bifid, and has, 

 too, a third of its upper part covered with spines 

 directed upwards. Within the cleft there are minute 

 projections, but I do not know their purpose. Fig. 66 

 is a representation of a complete floret, somewhat 

 larger than the natural size ; it will be noticed by this 

 how minute all the parts are. Fig. 68 represents the 



Fig. 68. 



upper and lower parts of the stamens and filaments 

 laid open and enlarged, so as to show more clearly 

 the construction. Observe how they are formed, and 

 the angular pieces below. At first the corolla of each 

 floret is closed, presenting a slightly curved tube, as 

 in Fig. 67. It then opens gradually. The order of 

 opening is, first the outermost whorl, then the next, 

 and so on. Fertilisation is effected by means of 

 insect agency, and the method adopted for securing a 

 cross is interesting. Reiterating the fact of the 

 minuteness of the stamens, forming as they do a tube 

 barely as thick as a fine needle, and stating that 

 the pistil fits that tube tightly, it is quite clear that 

 there would be little chance of fertilisation in the 

 way mentioned unless some contrivance existed for 

 furthering that desirable end. Hence, we find the 

 advantage of the spined pistil, the spines, as the 



