280 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



branching stems, and small heads of yellow flowers. (A name of Dioscorides for 

 some plant which exudes a gum.) 



1. C. JUNCEA, L. Biennial, bristly-hairy below, smooth above (l-3 

 high) ; root-leaves runcinate ; stem-leaves few and small, linear ; heads scattered 

 on nearly leafless branches, 6" -8" long. Fields and roadsides, abundant 

 near Alexandria, Virginia, M. J. Bebb, A.H. Curtiss; perhaps of recent intro- 

 duction. Aug. (Adv. from Eu.) 



81. PYRRHOPAPPUS, DC. FALSE DANDELION. 



Heads, &c. nearly as in Taraxacum, but the soft pappus reddish or rusty- 

 color, and with a villous ring at the top of the long beak of the achenium. 

 Mostly annual or biennial herbs, often branching and leafy below. Heads soli- 

 tary, terminating the naked summit of the stem or branches. Flowers deep 

 yellow. (Name composed of irvppos, flame-colored, and namros^ pappus.) 



1. P. Carolini&nilS, DC. S tern branching (l- 2 high); leaves oblong 

 or lanceolate, entire, cut, or pinnatifid, the stem-leaves partly clasping. Sandy 

 fields, from Maryland southward. April- July. 



82. TARAXACUM, Haller. DANDELION. 



Head many-flowered. Involucre double, the outer of short scales ; the inner 

 of long linear scales, erect in a single row. Achenia terete, oblong, ribbed, and 

 roughened on the ribs, the apex prolonged into a very slender thread-like beak, 

 bearing the pappus of copious soft and white capillary bristles. Perennials or 

 biennials, producing a tuft of pinnatifid or runcinate radical leaves, and slender 

 naked hollow scapes, bearing a single large head of yellow flowers. (Name 

 from rapacro-o), to disquiet or disorder, in allusion to medicinal properties.) 



1. T. Dens-le6nis, Desf. (COMMON DANDELION.) Smooth, or at first 

 pubescent ; outer involucre reflexed. Pastures and fields everywhere : prob- 

 ably indigenous in the North. April - Sept. After blossoming, the inner invo- 

 lucre closes, the slender beak elongates and raises up the pappus while the fruit 

 is forming ; the whole involucre is then reflexed, exposing to the wind the naked 

 fruits, with the pappus displayed in an open globular head. (Eu.) 



83. LAC TUG A, Tourn. LETTUCE. 



Heads several-flowered. Scales of the involucre imbricated in 2 or more sets 

 of unequal lengths. Achenia flat (compressed parallel to the scales of the invo- 

 lucre), abruptly contracted into a long thread-form beak, bearing a copious and 

 fugacious pappus of very soft and white capillary bristles. Leafy-stemmed 

 herbs, with panicled heads ; the flowers of variable color, produced in summer 

 and autumn. (The ancient name of the Lettuce, L. sativa; from lac, milk, in 

 allusion to the milky juice.) 



1. L. Canad6nsis, L. (WILD LETTUCE.) Biennial, mostly tall ; leaves 

 partly clasping, pale beneath ; the upper lanceolate and entire ; heads about 20- 

 flowered ; achenia oval, rather longer than the beak, minutely rugose transversely 

 and roughish, one-ribbed on each face. The typical form (L. elongata, MM , 



