MAY AND JUNE 



239 



are long, sessile, and coarsely toothed. When it grows in 

 good soil and in grass, its leaves reach upwards ; but in 

 barren soil they s^jread out over the ground in the form of 

 a rosette, thus pre-empting the greatest possible amount 

 of land to its own use, and suffering thereby no loss of 

 necessary light, since there are no other plants to shade it. 

 It belongs evidently to the Composites (see p. 24 et seq.). 



Dandelion. 



Its flowers are all strap-shaped. Like all of the other 

 members of this order, they are adapted to cross-fertiliza- 

 tion by insects ; yet close fertilization is possible, since 

 the branches of the style bend backwards until they make 

 a spiral, thus exposing the inside stigmatic surface, which 

 is the only part of the pistil on which the pollen will 

 send out its tube. Some arrangement like this is neces- 

 sary, since the dandelion begins to bloom before the in- 

 sects are active, and continues in blossom long after they 

 have disappeared. 



