DAVDKtION. f49 



DESCRIPTION. — Yhe root is perennial, fusiform, fleshy, of 

 a whitish-ash colour within, brown externally, and furnished 

 with numerous spreading fibres. The leaves are all radicali 

 spreading, smooth, runcinate; the lobes acute, unequal, toothed, 

 and pointing downwards. Several scapes arise from the same 

 root', they are erect, cylindrical, smooth, brittle, tubular, and 

 crowned with a single capitulum, or head of flowers. The in- 

 volucre is imbricated and oblong, and consists of two rows of 

 scales, of which the inner are nearly equal, linear, and parallel ; 

 the outer shorter, paler green, flaccid, and reflexed. The 

 florets are very numerous, equal, perfect, ligulate, truncate, five- 

 toothed, of a bright yellow externally, inclining to purplisli 

 beneath. The filaments are capillary and short, with the an- 

 thers united into a cylinder. The germen is obovate, furrowed, 

 surmounted by a slender style longer than the stamens, and 

 terminated by two revolute yellow stigmas. The receptacle is 

 convex, naked and dotted. The fruit is a small, dry, oblong peri- 

 carp, supporting the pappus, — a long, simple column, crowned 

 with radiating silky hairs. The seed is solitary and erect, 

 without albumen. Plate 1 6, fig. 2, (a) a single floret ; (b) the 

 pericarp, (commonly called seed,) crowned with the pappus or 

 down. 



Few plants are more common and provided with more ef- 

 fectual means of propagation than this : the seeds are wafted 

 far and wide by the winds, and the root is so vivacious that the 

 smallest piece of it will give rise to a new plant ; hence, it often 

 intrudes into gardens, and is generally looked upon as a trouble- 

 some weed. It is a native of Europe, from Italy to tlie Alps 

 and woods of Lapland. It flowers sparingly in March, and 

 abundantly from the second week in April to the end of May, 

 after which it begins to decline, though flowers may be found 

 till late in autumn. 



The term Leontodon is derived from Xsuiv, a lion, and 0:01;, a 

 tooth, from the tooth-like margins of the leaves, hence also the 

 old specific name dens-leonis, and the French dente de lion, of 

 which the English Dandelion is a corruption. Taraxacum is 

 said to be an Arabian alteration of rzoVtu^v, edible ; a name yiven 

 also to the Seris or wild Succory {Cichoriinn lutijhua). The 

 term caput monachi, or monk's-liead, was probably suggested by 

 the bald appearance of the receptacle after flowering. T]ie 



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