196 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
matter-of-fact science prevents the legend from 
dying out by calling the species marianum / 
There are a few more genera of these Composite 
plants to which we must refer before leaving the 
family. There is the Chicory (Cichorium «ntybus), 
which grows by the wayside nearly all over England, 
and whose bright blue flowers are so striking in 
character. Early in the year it may be overlooked 
as a Dandelion or Hawk-bit, which its leaves some- 
what resemble, but later it sends up a grooved and 
angled stem two or three feet high, and from the 
axils of the stem-leaves produces its flower-heads 
with scarcely any foot-stalks. The involucral bracts 
consist of two series, an inner whorl of long ones, and 
an outer whorl of short, turned-down ones. All the 
florets have strap-shaped rays, and these exhibit 
their origin clearly in the five teeth of the broad tip. 
The Hawkweeds (//ieraciwm) have flower-heads of 
very similar construction, the yellow florets being 
all rayed ; but I think it would be more advantageous 
to consider this type of structure in connection with 
the larger and ever-abundant Dandelion. 
Our forefathers set a higher value upon the 
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) than is customary 
to-day, though they were probably not very sensitive 
to its esthetic claims for attention; but to them it 
was an admirable salad and a valued medicine. It 
still retains these virtues, but as we now depend upon 
the greengrocer for our salads and the “patent” 
quack for our medicines, we know nothing of these 
things. Still,if we have no eye for the useful, we 
are not insensible to beauty, and can see it even in 
common things when it is pointed out to us. ‘The 
