Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 395 



FALL DANDELION (Leontodon autumnalis) (EU- 

 ROPEAN) is a small dandelion, naturalized from Eu- 

 rope and common in the Eastern States during Fall, 

 or from the latter part of July. The leaves, tufted 

 at the base of the flower scape, are long and narrow 

 and have blunt teeth. The flower scape is long and 

 slender and usually forks near the summit, bearing 

 two or three flower heads, rarely only one; the scape 

 attains heights of 7 to 18 inches. The upper parts of 

 the stem are covered with minute, scaly bracts set 

 at intervals of perhaps every half inch. The flower 

 stalk is not hollow like that of the common dande- 

 lion, but is solid. The flower heads are large and 

 showy, composed of numerous, golden-yellow, toothed, 

 strap-shaped rays, set in a small involucre, scarcely 

 imbricated but with several bractlets at the base. It 

 grows in fields and along roadsides and is quite com- 

 mon from Newfoundland to Mich, and south to Pa. 



DWARF DANDELION; CYNTHIA (Krigia virgin- 

 ica) is a tiny little plant as compared. to the common 

 dandelion. The leaves are all basal on rather long 

 petioles; they are coarsely and sharply, or lacinately, 

 toothed. Numerous unbranching, slender flower 

 scapes rise from these tufts of basal leaves, each 

 bearing at the summit a little golden-rayed flower re- 

 sembling a miniature dandelion. When the flower 

 heads have matured, the scape lengthens and fluffy 

 parachutes, each attached to tiny seed, form into 

 filmy globes that takes the places of the flowers until 

 the winds bear them away to new fields. 



Cynthia is a very common native species and is 

 found blooming from April until July in dry fields, 

 open woods or sandy soil, from southern Canada to 

 the Gulf. 



