COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 
251 
Achenia oblong, ribbed, and roughened on the ribs, the apex pro¬ 
longed into a very slender thread-like beak, bearing the pappus of 
copious soft and white capillary bristles. — Perennial herbs, pro¬ 
ducing a tuft of pinnatifid or runcinate radical leaves and slender 
naked hollow scapes, bearing a single large head of yellow flow¬ 
ers. (Name from Tapacrcrco, to disquiet or disorder , probably in 
allusion to its medicinal properties.) 
1. T. DeilS-leoniS, Desf. (Common Dandelion.) Smooth, 
or at first pubescent; leaves unequally and deeply runcinate; outer 
involucre reflexed. — Pastures and fields everywhere: probably in 
digenous in the North. April -Sept. —After blossoming the inner in¬ 
volucre closes for a time, the slender beak elongates and raises up the 
pappus while the fruit is forming, the whole involucre is then reflex¬ 
ed, exposing to the wind the naked fruits with the pappus displayed 
in an open globular head. 
67. I.ACXirCA, Toum. Lettuce. 
Heads several-flowered. Scales of the involucre imbricated in 
2 or more sets of unequal lengths. Achenia flat (compressed par¬ 
allel to the scales of the involucre), abruptly contracted into a long 
thread-form beak, bearing a copious and fugacious pappus of very 
soft and white capillary bristles. — Leafy-stemmed herbs, with 
panicled heads ; the flowers of variable color. (The ancient name 
of the Lettuce, from lac , milk, in allusion to the milky juice.) 
1. Li. elongata, Muhl. (Wild Lettuce.) Stem tall and 
stout ; leaves partly clasping, pale beneath ; the upper lanceolate and 
entire; the lower runcinate-pinnatifid; heads in a long and narrow 
naked panicle; achenia oval; flowers pale yellow, varying to purple. 
— Varies greatly; the leading form being smooth or nearly so, with 
long leaves : the var. integrifolia is mostly smooth with the leaves 
nearly all entire, and the flowers yellow or bluish (L. integrifolia. 
Bigel.) : the var. sanguinea is smaller, mostly hairy, with the leaves 
chiefly runcinate, and the flowers very variously colored (L. sangui¬ 
nea, Bigel.). — Rich damp soil, borders of copses, &c. July - Sept. 
Stem 29-9° high, hollow. 
68. MUEGEDItnH, Cass. False or Blue Lettuce. 
Heads many-flowered. Involucre, &c., as in Lactuca. Ache¬ 
nia laterally compressed, striate or ribbed, the summit contracted 
into a short and thick beak or neck of the same texture as the 
achenium, expanded at the apex into a ciliate disk, which bears a 
