THE DANDELION. 



153 



British dandelion who knows it not? With its 

 golden glowing disc, and its leaves jagged like the 

 lion's armed jaw, many of our most prized garden 

 plants are not half so handsome as this despised and 

 hardy flower. Though I must acknowledge that it 

 is not a desirable flower 

 to adorn a bouquet, or 

 to bestow on a fair lady, 

 as its white and milky 

 juice is not so innocent 

 as it looks ; but stains 

 indelibly any fabric it 

 may touch, and makes 

 the fingers which press 

 it resemble those of 

 the workers in nitrate 

 of silver, in pyrogallic 

 acid, and in other pho- 

 tographic preparations. 

 The dandelion, like 

 the daughter in the 

 song, is 



" As good as she is fair," 



for its uses are end- 

 less ; the young leaves 

 blanched make an 

 agreeable arid whole- 

 some early salad ; and 



they may be boiled like V*x*>*uox.r-Lmtodon taraxacum. 



cabbages, with salt meat. The French, too, slice the 

 roots, and eat them, as well as the leaves, with bread 



H 3 



