N. ORD. COMPOSIT. 95 
Tribe.—CICHORACEA. 
GENUS.—TARAXACUM »* HALLER. 
SEX. SYST.—_SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA ZEQUALIS. 
TARAXACUM. 
DANDELION. 
SYN.—TARAXACUM DENS-LEONIS, DESF.; TARAXACUM OFFICINALIS, 
WEBER; TARAXACUM VULGARE, SCHR.; LEONTODON}; TARAXA- 
CUM, LINN.; LEONTODON DENS-LEONIS, LAM.; LEONTODON VUL- 
GARE, LAM.; LEONTODON OFFICINALIS, WITH.; DENS-LEONIS, 
RAII.; HEDYPNOIS TARAXACUM, SCOP. 
COM. NAMES.—DANDELION,} PUFF-BALL;3 (ENG.) PISSABED; (FR.) DENT 
DE LION, PISSENLIT COMMUNE; (GER.) LOWENZAHN, PFAFFEN- 
ROHRLEIN. 
A TINCTURE OF THE FRESH. ROOT OF TARAXACUM DENS-LEONIS, DESF. 
Description.—This vernal, tufted, perennial herb, springs from a vertical tap- 
shaped rood, furnished with numerous short, thickened rootlets. Leaves radical, 
varying from spatulate to lanceolate, pinnatifid, runcinate, or irregularly dentate. 
Inflorescence several many-flowered heads, each raised upon a scape that elongates 
during and after anthesis; scape slender, naked, cylindrical, fistulous, 6 to 18 inches 
long in fruit. /zvolucre double, the outer portion composed of numerous short 
scales; the inner of a single row of linear, erect scales. Receptacle naked. Akenes 
terete, oblong, ribbed; 77s roughened by numerous, ascending tubercles; apex 
abruptly conical or pyramidal, prolonged into a slender, filiform beak; pappus 
borne upon the summit of the beak, and composed of copious, soft, white, capillary 
bristles. Read description of the order, under Eupatorium purpureum, 78. 
History and Habitat——The Dandelion is a’ native of Greece, or, at least, of 
Europe and Asia Minor, and has become by introduction a common herb in fields, 
pastures, lawns and open grounds everywhere in this country, where it blossoms 
in early spring and fruits in the summer. The growth of this plant furnishes an 
instance of a beautifully provisional Nature. During the expansion of the flower, 
the outer scales of the involucre reflex, after anthesis the inner row contracts 
until it covers the forming pappus; then while the fruit is maturing the beaks 
gradually extend by growth and raise the pappus, until finally the inner involucre 
* Tapdsow, farasso, to disorder, in allusion to its action upon the system. 
t Acov, Zeon, lion; odors, odous, a tooth; from a supposed likeness of the leaf incisions to a lion’s tooth. 
t Americanized from (Fr.) Dent de lion. 
@ On account of the separability of the akenes from the receptacle. The true puff-ball is Lycoperdon Bovista. 
