46 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



endeavour to see if we cannot, without too evident a 

 reiteration of well-worn facts, throw a little more light 

 than this on various points connected with the subjects of 

 our plates as they pass before us. 



The dandelion is by some botanical writers called the 

 Leontodon taraxacum, by others the Taraxacum dens-leonis. 

 The allusion to the lion's tooth is very palpable in all 

 these names, dandelion being- but a corruption or modifi- 

 cation of the French dent-de-lion, while leontodon means 

 precisely the same thing in the Greek and dens-leonis in 

 the Latin. Why the plant should thus be associated with 

 the lion's tooth has been the subject of several theories. One 

 writer suggests that the name arises from the whiteness 

 of the root when cut, but this is hardly probable, as the 

 popular names of plants more ordinarily arise from some 

 feature in their growth, or some resemblance presented, 

 that appeals more directly to the eye than a peculiarity 

 which can only be noticed on the uprooting of the plant. 

 The leaves or the flowers will more probably supply the 

 clue to the origin of the name, and it is therefore not 

 surprising to find that we have two other theories to 

 account for the origin of the name dandelion one being 

 based on the form of the leaves of the plant, and the other 

 on the shape of the blossoms. It will be noticed that each 

 part or ray of the flower-head is long and strap-shaped, 

 and that the end is notched or toothed, the feature that, 

 according to some writers, has earned it its popular name, 

 the golden colour being in this case regarded as a further 

 proof of the correctness of the idea, since though the tooth 

 of the real lion is white, his heraldic presentment may 

 have golden teeth; even where thus represented, however, 

 the feature is somewhat insignificant, and the surmise, in 



