■M- 



NAT. ORDER. 



CompositcB. 



LEONTODON TARAXACUM. DANDELION. 



Class XIX. Stngenesia. Order I. Polygamia iEauALis. 



Gen. Char. Receptacle naked. Calyx double. Papus stipitate and 

 hairy. 



Spe. Char. Outer calyx reflect. Scape one-flowered. Leaves runci 

 nate, smooth, with tooth-lobes. 



The Dandelion is a very common plant, and is to be found in 

 most parts of the United States, growing in meadows and pastures, 

 and flowering from April to August. The root is perennial and spin- 

 dle-shaped, wliich, with the whole plant, abounds with a milky juice ; 

 ih.Q Jlowcr-stalk is simple, colored, 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, on approaching to maturity, 

 become crowned with a fine downy feather, disposed in a spherical 

 shape. The young leaves of this plant are very much used in the 

 spring as a pot-herb ; in some parts of Europe the roots are roasted 

 and substituted for coffee by the poorer inhabitants, who find tliat an 

 infusion prepared in this way can hardly be distinguished from that of 

 the coffee-berry. The root, when dry, is very much wrinkled, shrunk, 

 and brittle, and on being broken presents a shining resinous fracture ; 

 it has a sweetish bitter, herbaceous taste, and yields its medical prop- 

 erties to boiling water. 



Medical Properties and Uses. Dandelion is generally con 

 sidered by medical writers as the most active and efficacious of th 



138 



