TARAXACUM 319 



Bracknell. Ascot. Bray. Windsor Park. Sandhurst. Cook- 

 ham Dean. 



Var. LAEViGATUM ,DC. Cat. Hort. Monsp. 149 (18 13), as a species . 

 Scarcely differs from the foregoing form except in the rather broader 

 phyllaries, which are only loosely adpressed, and in the colour of the 

 achenes, which in this variety are olive green. 



It has been observed in all the districts, as at Wytham, near Wind- 

 sor {Bolton King), Cumnoi", Wootton^ Dry Sandford, Pangbourn, Ash- 

 ampstead, Sonning, Clewer, &c. 



Var. PALUSTRE (DC. Fl. Fr. iv. 45, as a species), Syme, E. B. v. 143. 

 t. 804 — Leontodon palustre, Sm. E. B. t. 553. T. officinale, var, lividum, 

 Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. 428 (1837), which is kept as a distinct species in 

 Index Kewensis. In this variety the leaves are narrower and more 

 entire than in the previous ones. The outer phyllaries are jnuch 

 broader at the base, are never horned, and are more adpressed than 

 in the other forms. It is found in marshes and boggy ground. 



1. Isis. In Wytham meadows. Cothill. Frilford. Near Marcham. 

 Eadley." Moulsford. Fence Wood, Snelsmore. Greenham. 

 Aldermaston. Early. Long Moor. Bog in Windsor Great 

 Park, Gotobed, 1. c. Sunningdale, &c. 



Var. UDUM (Jord. Pugill. 114, as a species). 



Some of the records of T. palustre belong to T. udum, Jord., which has 

 the leaves rxincinate-pin natifid and the outer phyllaries loosely imbricate. 



When the leaves have red veins the plant is probably tlie T. ruhri- 

 iierve, Jordan, Pugill. 115, and when they are blotched with brown, 

 especially about the dorsal rib, it is the T. macidatum, Jord, 1. c, 117 ; 

 the latter was found by Mr. Baxter on Shotover Hill, Oxfordshire. 



The common form is figured in Syme, E. B, v. t. 802. In this the 

 outer phyllaries are strap-shaped and recurved, and the achenes are 

 olive green or dull yellow and rather larger than those of the first 

 two varieties. 



A considerable number of plants which are met with cannot be 

 satisfactorily referred to any of the above varieties. Koch, in Flora 

 (1834), 49, says that from the seeds of T, palustre he obtained the 

 greater number of the forms which have been distinguished as species. 



The Dandelion is one of our best known and most abundant species, 

 being especially noticeable in dry seasons, as then the gi-ass and 

 herbaceous plants being reduced in height the Dandelion has full 

 opportunity to expand its bright golden flowers. In the dry spring of 

 1895 some fields of arable gi-ound below the Ridge way, near Letcombe, 

 were so thickly covered with them as to be distinctly noticeable from 

 Boar's Hill, and owing to the deeper yellow colour of the flowers could 

 be distinguished from the fields of yellow mustard in the same locality. 



Taraxacum occurs abundantly in all the bordering counties. 



