COMPOSIT.E 403 



II. Flower - heads small, in 

 cymes or corymbs, 

 J. Flowers white or pale 

 purple: leaves 



mostly opposite 35. Hupatorium 



33. Flowers purple : leaves 



alternate 36. Vernonia 



1. TABAXACUM. Dandelion. 



Stemless herbs, the 1-headed scape short, leafless and hollow: florets 

 all perfect and strap-shaped: fruit ribbed, the pappus raised on a long beak. 



T. officinale, Weber {T. Dens-leonis, Desf.). Common dandelion. Figs. 

 8, 275. Perennial, introduced from the Old World: leaves long, pinnate or 

 lyrate: heads yellow, opening in sun. 



2. TKAGOPdGON. Goat's Beard. 



Biennials or perennials, stout, smooth, often glaucous, with long, grass- 

 like leaves clasping the stem: flowers all ligulate, in large solitary heads, 

 purple or yellow, terminal on long peduncle, with single involucre of many 

 bracts, which are equal and lanceolate, joined at bases: pappus in one 

 series, long and plumose: akenes linear, mostly with long slender beaks, 

 5- to 10-ribbed or angled: flowers open in early morning, usually closed at 

 midday. .Juice milky. 



T. porrifdliuB, Linn. Salsify. Oyster plant. Biennial; involucral bracts 

 much longer than the rays: stems 2 to 3 ft. high, hollow and thickened up- 

 ward: flowers purple. Europe. Cultivated for the edible tap-root. Some- 

 times wild. 



T. prat^nsis, Linn. Similar to preceding, but flowers yellow and 

 involucral bracts not longer than rays. Europe. Fields and waste places, 

 Eastern and Middle States. 



3. CICHORIUM. Chicory. 



Tall, branching perennials, with deep, hard roots: florets perfect and 

 strap-shaped: fruit lightly grooved, with sessile pappus of many small, 

 chaffy scales. 



C. tntybus, Linn. Common chicory. Runs wild along roadsides (from 

 Europe): 2 to 3 ft.: leaves oblong or lanceolate, the lowest pinnatifld: 

 flowers bright blue or pink, 2 to 3 together in the axils on long nearly naked 

 branches. 



4. LACTtCA. Lettuce. 



Coarse weedy plants: stems tall and leafy, simple or branching, car- 

 rying small panicled heads of insignificant flowers: juice milky: stem leaves 

 alternate, entire, or pinnately divided with lobes and margins and under 

 midrib often spine-tipped: involucre cylindrical, with bracts in 2 or more 

 unequal rows; flowers all lig\ilate and perfect, with the ligules truncate and 

 5-toothed : akenes oval to linear, flattened, 3- to 5-ribbed on each face, smooth, 



