Blue to Purple Flowers 301 



CHICORY 



Cichorium Intybus. Composite Family 



Stems: branching. Leaves: stem-leaves oblong or lanceolate, partly 

 clasping, the lower spatulate. Flowers: sessile, axillary or terminal. 

 Fruit: achenes striate, pappus of numerous small chaffy scales, forming 

 a short crown. Not indigenous. 



The Chicory, or Succory, is a common flower, whose 

 long, deep tap-root is dried, roasted, ground and used so 

 much as an adulterant of coffee. The name Chicory is of 

 Arabian origin, the French call a salad made of its blanched 

 leaves " Barbe de Capucin," and children look for the " Blue 

 Sailors " by the roadside, while Emerson has written of 



" Succory to match the sky." 



The grey-blue, and sometimes pinkish or white flowers, 

 grow close against the tall branching stalks, sometimes sin- 

 gly and sometimes in clusters, and are composed only of 

 ray flowers, five-toothed at the edge and set in a flat green 

 receptacle. The base leaves are spatulate and usually 

 strongly incised, the upper ones being reduced to oblong 

 bracts. This is an introduced plant. 



