YELLOW 



CYNTHIA. DWARF DANDELION. 



Krigia Virginica. Composite Family (p. 13). 



Stems. Several, becoming branched, leafy. Leaves. Earlier ones 

 roundish ; the latter narrower and often cleft. Flower-heads. Yellow, 

 composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers. . 



In some parts of the country these flowers are among the 

 earliest to appear. They are found in New England, as well as 

 south and westward. 



The flowers of K. amplexicaulis appear later, and their 

 range is a little farther south. Near Philadelphia great masses 

 of the orange-colored blossoms and pale green stems and foliage 

 line the railway embankments in June. 



RATTLESNAKE-WEED. 



Hieracium venosum. Composite Family (p. 13). 



Stem or Scape. One or two feet high, naked or with a single leaf, 

 smooth, slender, forking above. Leaves. From the root, oblong, often 

 making a sort of flat rosette, usually conspicuously veined with purple. 

 Flower-heads. Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers. 



The loosely clustered yellow flower-heads of the rattlesnake- 

 weed somewhat resemble small dandelions. They abound in the 

 pine-woods and dry, waste places of early summer. The purple- 

 veined leaves, whose curious markings give to the plant its com- 

 mon name, grow close to the ground and are supposed to be effi- 

 cacious in rattlesnake bites. Here again crops out the old 

 " doctrine of signatures," for undoubtedly this virtue has been 

 attributed to the species solely on account of the fancied resem- 

 blance between its leaves and the markings of the rattlesnake. 



H. scabrum is another common species, which may be distin- 

 guished from the rattlesnake-weed by its stout, leafy stem and un- 

 veined leaves. 



DANDELION. 



Taraxacum officinale. Composite Family (p. 13). 



If Emerson's definition of a weed, as a plant whose virtues 

 have not yet been discovered, be correct, we can hardly place the 

 dandelion in that category, for its young sprouts have been val- 

 ued as a pot-herb, its fresh leaves enjoyed as a salad, and its 

 dried roots used as a substitute for coffee in various countries and 



