THE CHICORY FA.NULV. 487 



or blow-ball, Taraxacum taraxacum. Often through open fields in the south 

 it attains a height almost unknown in the north. Its young rosettes of leaves 

 in early spring make so good a salad that it seems strange they arc not thus 

 used among the country people. They prefer, however, t<. Ijoil these leaves 

 as a pot herb, or to make from them a tonic renowned for purifying the blood. 



Sonchus olerdceus, hare's lettuce or sow thistle, might better be called 

 folk salad, for as such it is gathered, as well as to boil as a vegetable. In 

 fields and waste places it occurs, being one of the Kuropean weeds now 

 here abundantly naturalised. 



S. dspcr, usually a smaller sow-thistle with innumerable sharp spines about 

 its leaves, has also become abundant as an introduced weed. 



Tragopbgon porjifblius, a handsome one of the chicories, is also the com- 

 mon salsify, oyster-plant, the root of which, with its flavour similar to that 

 of an oyster, is much used as a vegetable. Through our r.ingc ilv pl.un. 

 which is a native of Europe, mostly occurs as an escape. 



Cichdriuin Intybus, wild chicory, or blue sailors, although so old and well 

 known an inhabitant of America, is also a European by birth. Hardly, how- 

 ever, has it a rival in its cheerful, sprightly aspect, and. for variety, it occurs 

 in blue, pink and white. Until late in the season it lingers in bloom, long 

 after the grass has faded and golden-rods have died down to the ground. 

 At about the noon hour the fiowers close. Unfortunately its roots are used 

 largely to adulterate coffee, to which they give a distinct, and to many a dis- 

 agreeable, flavour. 



DWARF DANDELION. 



Adopbgo)i moiitdnu])i. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Chicory. Deep yellow. Scentless. Mountains of Xortli Carolina. May-.Xu^utt. 



Flmuers : solitary, growing at the end of peduncles, six and eight inches long. 

 Flcnvers: ligulate; numerous; mostly five-toothed at the apex and enclosed in an 

 involucre of from six to fifteen lanceolate, jiointed bracts. Basal leaves : lonjj, 

 pinnatifid. Ste7n leaves: linear-spatulate, rounded or bluntly pointed at the apex; 

 thin; glabrous. vS'/'^/z/j: two to five inches high. Kootstock:'s>\\()X\. 



Like little golden dandelions appears the young bloom of this rare Adopo- 

 gon, which grows through the high mountains of North Carolina. Here it 

 thrusts its heads from the crevices of rocks or sits very jauntily out on their 

 warm surfaces, where it basks freely in the sunshine. Occurring in tufts the 

 pale blue-green tint of the tender leafage blends with the deep yellow bloom 

 and produces an aesthetic effect altogether charming. 



The Adopogons are nearly all smooth herbs and have, as a mark of their 

 genus, rounded scales to the pappus which occurs either with or without 

 inner bristles, 



