536 COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



the whole colony is fertilized to the center ; florets all perfect and 

 fertile, the rays five-toothed at their tips ; bracts of the involucre in 

 two series, the outer ones short, spreading, often reflexed at matur- 

 ity, the inner ones smooth, linear, erect in a single row, long enough 

 to enfold the flowers after their first opening. Achenes brown, 

 oblong, angled, and ridged, set around the top with fine, spinous 

 tubercles, the tip extending in a slender beak, bearing a copious 

 pappus of fine, white hairs. (Fig. 369.) 



Young Dandelion plants are excellent salad and pot herbs ; the 

 roots are used in medicine and more than a hundred thousand pounds 

 are imported annually, notwithstanding the abundant home-grown 

 product. The time for collection is in autumn when the roots are 

 well stored with sustenance for the next season's growth, at which 

 time the milky juice is thickest and the root most bitter. The price 

 is four to ten cents a pound. 



Means of control 



One method, and usually the one practiced in small lawns and 

 often in large public parks, is the diligent, persistent use of spud or 

 knife, cutting below the ground. The plants sprout again, and have 

 to be cut again, but if no leaf-growth is allowed to feed the roots 

 even old ones must finally starve. A pinch of dry salt applied to 

 the root at the time of cutting off the crown, will retard recovery. 

 But winged weeds are constantly "blowing in" to replant the 

 ground, and seedling Dandelions, with taproots still short and 

 slender and leaves finely hairy, may be killed with chemical sprays ; 

 old plants with long, well-filled roots and smooth leaves are not 

 much if at all affected. But if lawns and parking are systemati- 

 cally sprayed throughout the growing season with Copper sulfate 

 or Iron sulfate, the grass will not be injured, seedling Dandelions 

 will be destroyed, and the hairy, opening buds of old plants will 

 be injured sufficiently to check development of seeds. Too often 

 it is forgotten that the plants of roadside and waste places must 

 not be neglected, even though growing at some distance, if 

 property-owners expect any degree of success in keeping out the 

 intruder. "Everlastingly keep at it" must be the motto of one 

 who fights this weed. 



