GAMOPETAL/E 133 
The leaves appear after the flowers. There is no 
aérial stem, the plant increasing by creeping stolons, 
the only erect stem being the scape which bears the 
flowers. The leaves are radical on long petioles, 
sinuate, angular, dentate, cordate below, with a thick 
felt of down beneath. 
The scapes bear a single head and are furnished 
with a number of overlapping bracts, tomentose, 
reddish, erect, nodding before and after flowering. 
The heads are light yellow, consisting of over a 
hundred flowers. The pappus expands just as in 
the Dandelion. The seeds are oblong and pale brown, 
the pappus sessile and simple. The rays are narrow. 
Coltsfoot is, when flowering, 6 to 8 in. high. It flowers 
in March and April. 
There are 30 to 40 male florets in the disc with 
honey and pollen, and 300 to 400 female florets in the 
ray, which render the flower conspicuous. When dull 
or wet the flower closes up. There is an ovary and an 
abortive ovule in the disc florets with a fleshy yellow 
nectary at the bottom of the tube, the style being 
just visible. The honey rises in the tube, in the 
throat of the cylinder protruding later. The style 
has the lobes coherent as far as the tip, with pro- 
tecting hairs above and outside. Inthe ray the ovule 
is perfect, the tube linear. The style projects a short 
distance beyond the corolla, dividing into two lobes, 
having papilla on the inner surface and sweeping 
hairs above. The ray florets thus produce fertile 
seed, the disc furnishing the honey and pollen alone. 
