ORG es by 
, TARAXACUM. : COMMON DANDELION. 
SYNONYMA ‘Taraxacum. Pharm. Lond. & Edin. Dens 
~Leonis, Raii Syn. 170. Ger. em. 290. LL. Officinalis Wither. 679. 
43 Taraxacum. Huds.339. Smith Flor. Ang. 822. Curt. 1 1.58. 
Class Syngenesia. Order Polygamia Equalis. L. Gen. Plant. 919. 
* Semiflosculost Tourn. corollis ligulatis omnibus. 
Ess. Gen. Char. Recept. nudum. Cal, imbricatus, squamis laxi- 
usculis, Pappus plumosus. 
Spe. Char. L. T. calyce squamis inferne reflexis, foliis runci- 
 natis denticulatis leevibus. 
DANDELION is so very common, that~a plot of ground can 
scarcely be seen where it does not present its yellow flowers*. It is 
easily distinguished from the hawkweeds and other ligulated plants, 
by the outer calyces being bent downwards, and by the flower 
stalk, which is simple, coloured, shining, and unifloral: the leaves 
are all radical and cut in a peculiar way, forming a good example 
of what botanists call runcinata. The seeds, in approaching to ma- 
turity, become crowned with a fine downy féather, disposed in a 
spherical shape. The root is perennial and au which 
with the whole plant abounds with a milky juice. 
The young leaves of this plant in a blanched state have the taste 
of endive, and make an excellent ‘addition to those plants eaten 
early in the spring as sallads*. At Gottingen the roots are roasted 
and substituted for coffee by the poorer inhabitants; who find that 
an infusion prepared in this way can hardly be distinguished from 
that of the coffee ° berry. 
* It has been observed that these flowers possess a certain degree of sensibility, 
for when under the powerfal influence of the sun in a summer’s morning, an evi- 
dent motion of the flowerets may be discovered. MS Lect. of the late Dr. Hope. 
* Withering’s Bot. Arrang. p. 839. > Murray. App. Med. p. 107. 
= 
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