66 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



Taraxacum, Lonicerus, may be from the Greek tarasso, I disturb, 

 from its medicinal effects. Dandelion is from the French dent de lion, 

 in allusion to the leaf margin, and the second Latin name refers to the 

 use in medicine. 



The Dandelion is known by a variety of vernacular names, such as 

 Bitterwort, Blowball, Blower, Canker, Cankerwort, Clock, Crow-par- 

 snip, Irish Daisy, Dandelion, Dentelion, Dindle, Doon-head-clock, 

 Fortune-teller, Gowan, Monkshood, One o'clocks, Priest's Crown, 

 Stink Davie, Swine's Snout. It is called Priest's Crown and 

 Monkshead because the naked receptacle after the fruits are dis- 

 persed is like the shaven head of a priest. As to the name Doon- 

 head-clock, Mactaggart says: "Rustics, to know the time of the 

 day, pull the plant and puff away at its downy head, and the puffs 

 it takes to blow the down from it is reckoned by them the time of 

 the day ". Blowball, Blower, Fortune-teller, are all connected with the 

 same choristic feature. 



If seen in dreams the superstitious believed it was a bad omen. 



It is called Peasant's Clock, the flower opening early in the 



morning. 



Dandelion with globe of down, 

 The schoolboys' clock in every town, 

 Which the truant puffs amain, 

 To conjure lost hours back again. 



The name Dent de lion has been connected with the sun, of which 

 the lion is the symbol, the teeth in this way being rays round a golden 

 head, the sun. 



An Irish charm was to give the patient nine leaves of Dandelion, 

 three leaves being eaten on three successive mornings. 



Warts have been supposed to have been cured by the juice of 

 the Dandelion in the Midlands. 



The leaves are used in medicine for several remedies. In spring 

 the leaves, blanched under a tile, are used as a salad, and resemble 

 Endive. The French eat the long, milky roots as a salad, raw; and 

 it is boiled in Germany as Salsify. The root dried and ground has 

 been used for coffee. Pigs and goats are fond of it. It was used as 

 a remedy for jaundice. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



182. Taraxacum officinale, Weber. Flowering stems scapes, leaves 

 radical, runcinate, smooth, lobes recurved, sinuate, toothed, flowerheads 

 large, yellow, outer florets brown beneath, outer scales of involucre re- 

 flexed, scape hollow, milky, pappus pilose, stalked, receptacle convex. 



