144 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



inches high, terminated by a single large anthode. Phyllaries gla- 

 brous, the inner ones much longer and slightly thickened, but not 

 split at the apex. Plorets bright-yellow, longer than the phyllaries, 

 the outer ones generally olive on the back. Achenes olive or dull 

 yellow, ribbed, rough with sharp tubercles on the apex beneath the 

 beak, which is longer than the achene and very slender. Pappus of 

 delicate white simple hairs. Plant glabrous or sub-glabrous, the 

 crown of the rootstock and scapes sometimes woolly. 



Var. |3 is a smaller plant, with the leaves much more deeply 

 divided, the later ones pinnatij)artite, with the segments acuminated 

 a little above the base and their points somewhat strapshaped, with 

 teeth on the side next the apex and between the lobes ; the leaves are 

 generally more glaucous than in the common form, but sometimes 

 scarcely differ in colour. Scapesl to 9 inches long. Anthodes smaller; 

 the outer phyllaries broader, and more tapering towards the apex, 

 not reflexed, sometimes spreading, sometimes loosely adpressed ; the 

 inner ones are usually thickened, and have a short lobe near the 

 apex so as to have double ends. The fruit is of a bright dark brick- 

 red, rather smaller and more spinous at the top than in the common 

 form. Plant glabrous or sub-glabrous. 



Var. 7 scarcely deserves to be distinguished from 3, from which 

 it differs onlv in the colour of the achenes, a character of little 

 importance. Plant glabrous. 



Var. 8 has the leaves narrower and less divided than in the other 

 forms, often merely dentate. The outer phyllaries are much broader 

 at the base, and more adpressed than in the others ; it also seems 

 to be a more northern form. Plant glabrous. 



Were it not that Koch, in the "Mora" for 1834, No. 6, p. 49, 

 states that from the seeds of T. palustre he obtained the greater 

 number of the forms which have been distinguished as species, I 

 should have been disposed to consider that we have three sub-species 

 in Britain, — 1st, the common form ; 2nd, the form with finely- 

 divided leaves and bi-lobed inner phyllaries (T. erythrospermum 

 and T. Isevigatum) ; and 3rd, the T. palustre of De Candolle, including 

 T. udum (Jord.). 



Common Dandelion. 



French, Pisserdit Officinal. German, Gebrduchliche Kichhlume. 



This common wayside plant is known to every one, and were it not so familiar, 

 would probaV)ly be thought attractive, from the golden-yellow colour of its flowers, and 

 the globes of white-plumed seeds which succeed them. Who has not, in the days of 

 their childhood, delighted in blowing these silvery feathers into the air, and trying 

 " what's o'clock " by their behaviour : — 



" Dandelion, with globe of down, 

 The schoolboy's clock in every town, 

 While the truant puffs amain 

 To conjure lost hours back again." 



1 



