TARAXACUM. 199 



of the same author, although Adams states that this latter may 

 be safely put down as Cichorium Intybus, the Wild Succory or 

 Wild Endive. The Arabian physicians evidently confounded 

 the two, as Avicenna states that Taraxacum is the Garden 



Endive. Its medicinal properties were known at a very early 

 period. 



DEscRiPTioN.-^-Dandelion is perennial, and flowers from 

 April to September. The root is spindle-shaped, very milky, 

 of a dark brown colour on the outside. Leaves all radical, 

 numerous, spreading, bright shining green, smooth, tapering 

 downward more or less, deeply wing-cleft (pinnatifid), with 

 sharp, unequally-toothed lobes, which point downwards, and 

 constitute what in botanical language is called a ruminate or 

 lion-toothed leaf. Flower-stalks upright, smooth, sometimes 

 slightly cottony, cylindrical, hollow, brittle, from three to ten 

 inches high, one-flowered. Flowers large and handsome, of a 

 bright deep yellow, expanding in a morning, and in fine weather 

 only. Outer scales of the involucrum several, linear, oblong, 

 loosely recurved, and wavy, the inner becoming reflexed close 

 to the stalk as the seeds ripen, leaving the light globe, nearly 

 two inches in diameter, formed by their radiating doion or 

 pappus, quite exposed, till dispersed by the wind. Seeds a little 

 crooked, flattish, scored, prickly upwards. Pappus on a long 

 pedicel, radiate, simple, not feathery, shorter than the pedicel. 



Receptacle dotted {Baxter). 



Geographical Distribution. — A native of Europe and 

 Asia Minor. Indigenous in this country, and found in meadows 



and pastures everywhere. 



Parts used in Medicine, and Mode of Preparation, 



The Whole Plant, gathered before it flowers in the months of 

 March and May- " The expressed juice is richest in solid 

 constituents in the months of November and December. It 

 is remarkable, however, that the juice possesses the greatest 

 bitterness in the summer months; while in the spring and 

 late in the autumn it has a remarkably sweet taste. Squire 



