162- ORDER iEQLALIS. 



No more familiar example first offers itself for om 

 examination than the common Dandelion, of the very 

 small genus Leontodon ; the common calyx of which 

 is quite peculiar and remarkable, being formed of 2 

 series of leaves, one of them erect and equal, the 

 other row situated near the base of the former, and 

 somewhat flaccidly reflected. The common recepta- 

 cle, or plane of insertion for the florets, which consti- 

 tute the compound ligulate flower, is naked of hairs. 

 or chaffy processes, and merely exhibits slight im- 

 pressions on which the seeds were seated, somewhat 

 resembling the top of a honey-comb. The second 

 essential character of the genus, after the calyx, is 

 the nature of the pappus or down, the hairs of which, 

 unlike some other genera, are simple, and the whole 

 crown of them stipitate, or attached to a pedicle above 

 the seed. With the rest of the plant you are already 

 too well acquainted to require any further remarks. 



The genus Prenanthes is by no means an uncom- 

 mon one in our woods, and most of the species flower 

 in autumn. Unlike the Dandelion, they are furnished 

 with stems of from one, to four feet in height ; and 

 leaves, either entire, or intricately lobed, and sinuat- 

 ed. The flowers, generally small, are in panicles or 

 clusters, frequently nodding or inclining downwards, 

 and of a yellowish white, or pale purple. The gene- 

 ric character is, to have the calyx surrounded at its 

 base with leafy scales; the florets few, (5 to 20) ; 

 the receptacle naked ; the pappus simple, and 

 nearly sessile, or without the intervening stipe of the 

 Dandelion. That they are milky juiced plants is a 

 circumstance of physical structure common to all 

 plants with ligulate florets. The milky sap, with 

 which some of the species of this genus particularly 

 abounds, as in P. alba, and its polymorphous or pro- 

 tean varieties, has been occasionally employed with 



