COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Sharp-fringed Sow-Thistle, Sonchus dsperis is the 

 other annual species similar to the Common Sow- 

 Thistle varying from it chiefly in the shape of the 

 leaves which are obovate, pointed; undivided or lobed 

 or sometirnes pinnatifid; the upper leaves some- 

 what arched and slightly folded with irregular wavy 

 margins that are thistle-like and fringed with many 

 weak spine-like points. They clasp the long stalk 

 with a conspicuous pair of eared lobes, are smooth 

 and shining. Found in the wastes of the city. 



FALL DANDELION 



Leontodon aiilumndle 



Leontodon, Greek, lion's tooth. 



A perennial, roadside species, most abundant in New 

 England especially about Boston. Naturalized from Eu- 

 rope, native also to Asia. It bears a rather small Dande- 

 lion head at the summit of a tall branching scape. June- 

 November. 



Stems. — A group of slender, branching scapes rising from 

 a tuft of basal leaves; wiry, not tubular. Two to three 

 feet high and set with tiny bracts or scales. 



Leaves. — Narrowly oblong to linear-lanceolate; six 

 to ten inches long, variously pinnatifid, the segments 

 varying from narrow-pointed angular to bluntly toothed. 



Flower-heads. — Ligulate-composite, that is, all ray- 

 florets; several at the summit of a branching stem, 

 about an inch across, resembling Dandelion heads. In- 

 volucre oblong, bracts in several series and different 

 lengths. Receptacle flat, honeycombed. Rays truncate, 

 five-toothed. Pappus of plumose, brownish bristles. 



These autumnal Dandelions, smaller in flowering 

 heads and taller in stature than the Dandelion of 



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