COMPOSITE FAMILY. Compositse. 



The familiar grass-plot, jellow flower of 



ominon j^ country and city, naturalized from 



Dandelion -^ ^ ' 



Taraxacum Europe. The heads are sometimes 3 inches 

 officinale broad, and are supported on a pale green, 



Golden yellow iioUow stem ; the perfect flowers are 



ay- une orange-gold in the centre of the head, and 



light golden yellow on the straps of the margin. The 

 seeds are neutral brown, and spiny at the upper part. 

 The deep green leaves are irregularly and angularly 

 broad-toothed, the jagged edge bearing a remote re- 

 semblance to the row of teeth in a lion's jaw, hence the 

 common name, a corruption of the French dent-de-Uon. 

 3-14 inches high. The silky down forms a beautiful 

 globe when the seeds ripen and the acute divisions of the 

 flower-envelop are reflexed. Common everywhere. 

 Red=seeded ^ similar but smaller species with 



Dandelion flower-heads scarcely over an inch broad. 



Taraxacum pure yellow, but deeper in the centre ; the 



erythrospermnm two-pointed straps or bracts of the floral 

 envelop usually have a thickened point or knob near the 

 tip. The outermost straps are magenta-tinged ; the 

 smooth leaves are very deepl}" cut into thin, irregular, 

 sharp, backward-tending lobes or narrow angular divi- 

 sions. The seeds are bright terra-cotta red, and spiny 

 over the upper half of the surface. Distribution un- 

 known beyond N. Eng., N. Y., and Pa. 



A tall biennial species often 6 feet high. 

 Wild Lettuce . . , / ^ , i. . i i 



Lactnca With a smooth, stout, leafy stem branch- 



Canadensis ing at the top in a thin, scattered flower- 

 Pale yellow spike with insignificant pale yellow 

 *'""^~ ray-flowers mostly enclosed within the 



green floral envelop. Both stem and 

 leaves with a slight bloom ; the leaves slightly like those 

 of the dandelion, but the upper ones lance-shaped, and 

 the lower sometimes 12 inches long. 4-10 feet high. 

 Common in wet soil, northward, south to Ga. and La. 



A similar species with a broader flower- 

 integrifoUa cluster, and oblong lance-shaped, smooth, 



acute leaves, toothless or nearlj^ so. The 

 flower-raj^s pale yellow or magenta-tinted. 2-6 feet 

 high. In damp places. Me. to Ga., west to Neb. 



532 



