152 ELORA OF NEW ZEALAND. [ Composite. 
Gen. XXI. TARAXACUM, JL. 
Capitulum multiflorum ; floseulis omnibus ligulatis. Involuerum biseriale, basi squamis parvis bracteola- 
tum. Receptaculum nudum. Achenia oblonga, striata, costis muricatis v. denticulatis, abrupte in ros- 
trum gracile elongatum contracta. Pappus plumosus. 
The common Dandelion is a much more widely distributed plant than has hitherto been supposed. I have 
already described it in the * Flora Antarctica ? as a native of the Falkland Islands, where, as well as at Fuegia, it 
has been gathered in a certainly native state. Tt occurs in the collections of Banks and Solander, made in New 
Zealand, from which, as well as the fact that the prevalent varieties collected by these voyagers and by Mr. Colenso 
differ from the ordinarily introduced British form, confirm the opinion of the plant being truly indigenous. Like 
the Microseris and allied scapigerous, herbaceous, and succulent Composite, the Dandelion varies extremely in 
stature, and the size and cutting of the leaf. In Europe it especially haunts newly-cultivated soil, growing to a 
very large size; but in its truly aboriginal localities, and especially on mountains, it appears generally to be a plant 
of humble stature. So also in New Zealand, the earlier collected forms are all small, with slender scapes ; but 
about the Bay of Islands, Thames district, and Canterbury, it is spreading on cultivated ground, and has there 
already assumed the common English form, if indeed such specimens be not introduced with English seed. The 
observant colonist will have a most interesting field for watching in New Zealand the influence of cultivation upon 
the indigenous and introduced vegetation. In England we have already lost sight of this, and we regard the 
road-side states of the Dandelion, Sow-thistle, ete., as the normal or typical, and treat the truly native and 
natural forms as starved, stunted, and alpine. In doing this we forget that the former are often but transient in- 
habitants of cultivated spots, and grow on them in great luxuriance, simply because their seeds are supplied by 
nature with remarkable appliances for aiding dispersion ; they get there before other plants, and growing quickly, 
monopolize the soil; soon other species of slower but surer growth, and with stronger powers of endurance, in- 
sinuate themselves, and, pressing hard on the Dandelion and Sow-thistle, reduce the former to its lowly form and 
kill the latter. Hence, in a first year's dressed field we often see succulent Dandelions a foot high, and Sow- 
thistles 8 feet; in the second year the same field becomes a grass meadow, in which the first-named plant is 
but a few inches high, and the thistle is gone.—The novice in New Zealand botany may recognize the genus 
Tarawacum by its general similarity to Microseris, from which it differs in the broader foliage, but most remarkably 
in the pappus, which is composed of one series of smooth hairs, supported on a very long slender stalk, proceed- 
ing from the top of the achenium; the latter is turgid at the middle, ribbed, the ribs sharply toothed above the 
middle. (Name of Arabic origin.) 
1. Taraxacum officinale, DC. Prodr. Leontodon Taraxacum, Auct. 
Var. a. elata; foliis petiolatis lineari-oblongis sinuato-dentatis runcinato-pinnatifidisve. 
Var. B. minor; folis ut in var. a, scapo superne tomentoso. T. eriopodum, DC., ete. 
Var. y. pygmaa; depressa, foliis anguste linearibus abrupte pinnatifide lobatis lobis dentatis. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands, in various places, chiefly on the east coast and on the mountains, 
Banks and Solander, etc. 
Gen. XXII. SONCHUS, L. 
Capitulum multiflorum ; flosculis omnibus hermaphroditis, ligulatis. Jmvoluerum imbricatum ; squamis 
multi- v. pauci-seriatis. Receptaculum nudum. Achenia conformia, compressa v. alata, erostria, costata, 
levia v. tuberculata. Pappus mollis, albus, pluriserialis, pilis tenuissimis. 
The English “ Sow-thistle" appears to be truly a native of New Zealand, having been found by the earliest 
voyagers, as well as by all subsequent ones, in the most remote quarters. Mr. Colenso says that the natives know it 
as undoubtedly indigenous, and distinguish it from the imported Sonchus oleraceus, or that which abounds on the 
