COMPOSITE. ^51 



Florets all similar and fertile, ligulate, with five teeth 

 anther-cells with long tails : stylar arms slender. 

 Species about 10, in temperate and cold regions. 



Taraxacum officinale Linn. ; F.B.I, iii 401, CXII i ; 

 common Dandelion. Rootstock strong, vertical. Leaves 

 all radical pinnatisect, with backward sloping segments; 

 margins with small spine-teeth. Heads solitary on 

 hollow scapes of about 6 inches : inner bracts erect M 

 inch. Florets yellow. Achenes % inch, egg-shaped, the 

 upper and broader end armed with teeth and prolonged 

 into a beak 1/5 inch long. Pappus hairs feathery. 



As a weed. Kodaikanal. Fyson. Bourne 701. 



Hooker in F.B.I, observes that it is remarkable that this plant, so 

 common in the Himalayas, should not be found on the Khasi and Nilgiri 

 mountains, even as a garden-escape. 1 have seen it only as a weed. 



LACTUCA. F.B.I. 78 cxiv. 



Herbs with milky juice and narrow heads of yellow 

 blue or white ligulate florets, with thin involucral bracts, 

 no scales between the florets, and achenes narrowed 

 upwards into a beak which ends in a small disc carrying 

 the very soft white pappus of simple hairs. 



Species about 60 in the north temperate regions. 



Lactuca hastata D.C. ; F.B.I, iii 407, CXIV 14. Stem 

 tall, 2 to 7 feet, glabrous or roughened or sticky. 

 Leaves 4 to 12 inches, variable in shape; usually with 

 a narrow-stalk part extended in occasional lobes and 

 widened to clasp the stem at its base, and a broad terminal 

 heart-shaped part, with small sinuate-teeth. Heads 

 several in irregular racemes or branches at the end of 

 the stem, in the axils of narrow bracts Ye inch wide and 

 I inch or more long. Involucre of several rows of 

 bracts about ^ inch. Florets bluish-purple. Achenes 



