COMPOSITAE — LIGULIFLORAE — CHICORY 759 



Poisonous properties. When fed in large quantities it imparts a bitter 

 flavor to milk and butter. It contains the bitter glucoside chicorin C^oHg^O^g. 

 Chicory root is used as an adulterant of coffee. 



Fig. 439b. Dandelion {Taraxacum offtcinale), 1, Single 

 head during flowering, single head after flowering. 2, Single 

 flower with corolla stamens and style. 3, Achenium. 4, Recep- 

 tacle and single achenivim. (.-Vfter Strasburger, Noll Schenck 

 and Schimper). 



2. Sonchus (Tourn.) L. Sow Thistle 



Annual or perennial herbs with alternate, mostly auriculate-clasping, entire 

 dentate, lobed, or pinnatifid leaves with soft prickly margins; flower heads in 

 corymbose or paniculate clusters; involucre bell-shaped; scales imbricated in 

 several rows; receptacle flat and naked; achenes oblong, more or less flattened; 

 lO-20-ribbed ; pappus of soft white capillary bristles. 



About 45 species of the old world. 



Sonchus olcraceus L. Annual Sow-thistle 



Annual or perennial succulent herbs with leafy stems, smooth and glau- 

 cous with corymbed or umbellate heads of yellow flowers. Stem leaves dentate, 

 runcinate-pinnatifid, terminal segments large and triangular ; heads numerous ; 

 flowers pale yellow, occurring in summer and fall. 



Distribution. Common in fields and waste places throughout North Amer- 

 ica, except far northward. Also from Mexico to South America. 



Sonclms aifcnsis h- Field Sow-thistle 

 A glabrous perennial, producing deep creeping root-stock, stem leafy^ 

 branched, basal leaves runcinate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed, clasping by a heart- 

 shaped base ; flowers yellow ; achenes transversely wrinkled. 



