Yellow and Orange 



deep, thick, bitter root ; oblong to spatulate in outline, irregu- 

 larly jagged. 



Preferred Ifabiiat— Lawns, fields, grassy waste places. 



Flowering Season — Every month in the year. 



Distribution — Around the civilized world. 



" Dear common flower that grow'st beside the way, 

 Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold. 



Gold such as thine ne'er drew the Spanish prow 



Through the primeval hush of Indian seas, 

 Nor wrinkled the lean brow 



Of age, to rob the lover's heart of ease. 

 'Tis the spring's largess, which she scatters now 



To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand ; 



Though most hearts never understand 

 To take it at God's value, but pass by 

 The offered wealth with unrewarded eye." 



Let the triumphant Anglo-Saxon with dreams of expansion 

 that include the round earth, the student of sociology who wishes 

 an insight into cooperative methods as opposed to individualism, 

 the .young man anxious to learn how to get on, parents with 

 children to be equipped for the struggle for existence, business 

 men and employers of labor, all sit down beside the dandelion 

 and take its lesson to heart. How has it managed without navies 

 and armies — for it is no imperialist — to land its peaceful legions on 

 every part of the civilized world and take possession of the soil .? 

 How can this neglected wayside composite weed triumph over 

 the most gorgeous hothouse individual on which the horticulturist 

 expends all the science at his command ; to flourish where others 

 give up the struggle defeated ; to send its vigorous offspring 

 abroad prepared for similar conquest of adverse conditions wher- 

 ever met ; to attract myriads of customers to its department store, 

 and by consummate executive ability to make every visitor un- 

 wittingly contribute to its success ? Any one who doubts the 

 dandelion's fitness to survive, should humble himself by spending 

 days and weeks on his knees, trying to eradicate the plant from 

 even one small lawn with a knife, only to find the turf starred 

 with golden blossoms, or, worse still from his point of view, 

 hoary with seed balloons, the following spring. 



Deep, very deep, the stocky bitter root penetrates where heat 

 and drought affect it not, nor nibbling rabbits, moles, grubs of in- 

 sects, and other burrowers break through and steal. Cut off the 

 upper portion only with your knife, and not one, but several, 

 plants will likely sprout from what remains ; and, however late in 

 the season, will economize stem and leaf to produce flowers and 

 seeds, cuddled close within the tuft, that set all your pains at 

 naught. "Never say die " is the dandelion's motto. An exceed- 

 ingly bitter medicine is extracted from the root of this dandelion, 



341 



