490 THE CHICORY FAMILY. 



L. villbsa, hairy-veined blue lettuce, bears also small heads of blue flowers, 

 which grow in a narrow paniculate inflorescence. The numerous stem- 

 leaves are ovate, or oblong, and abruptly narrowed at the base where the 

 blade is contracted into the wings of the petiole. On their undersides 

 they hav^e many short, stiff hairs. 



L. Caiiddoisis, tall wild lettuce or wild opium, is a common thing along 

 roadsides, and in many places it grows sometimes ten feet high, its great 

 basal leaves becoming a foot long. Its ray flowers are yellow, and through- 

 out the plant is smooth. The white pappus, however, is particularly lus- 

 trous and silky. Humming birds gather it as a lining for their nests. . 



LYG0DE5MIA. 



Lygodcsniia aphylla. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Chicory. Rose-colour, Scentless. Florida and Georgia. April-Septeuiber. 



Fiozuer-heads : so\\\.7iry\ five to ten flowered, showy. Involucre: cylindrical, 

 the five to eight scales linear, thin ; and the exterior ones being very short. 

 A'rty/j ; quite large, minutely toothed at their apices. Pappus: of smooth white 

 hairs. Leaves ; long ; filiform ; stiff; smooth; the upper ones becoming bract-like 

 •and remote. Stem : one to two feet high, smooth; simple, showing forked 

 branches. 



Of the genus Lygodesmia, this slender, smooth plant is in the south the 



representative. It may be found through grassy pine-lands and sandy 



barrens and only becomes conspicuous when its extremely pretty flowers 



are in blow. At other times its stiff foliage is too grass-like and meagre to 



attract the attention. 



LEAFY=STEnnED FALSE DANDELION. 



S// ilic IS Ca rolm idna . 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Chicory. Yellozv. Scentless. Texas and Florida to Delaware. April-July. 



Flower-heads: large; solitary at the ends of long bracted peduncles. Involucre: 

 double; pubescent; oblong, the inner and principal bracts regular, partly united ; 

 the outer ones irregular, and often spreading; in fruit becoming reflexed. Rays : 

 squared and five-toothed at their apices. Styles : with short branches. Pappus: 

 of reddish brown hairs. Leaves : those from the base, oblong-lanceolate, tapering 

 into a margined petiole mostly coarsely and deeply dentate or pinnatifid; those of 

 the stem lanceolate, mostly sessile; dentate or entire; smooth. Stems: two to 

 five feet high, branched, leafy; smooth or slightly pubescent below. 



No true dandelion, I am sure, although not an especially modest flower, 

 would ever presume to raise its head as high as do these large false ones of 

 bright yellow. The leafy stems also mark the plant distinctly. The genus 

 to which it belongs is not a large one, there being knov/n in North America 

 and Mexico but six species. 



