526 COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 
pot herb and as salad; several thousand tons of its thick, fleshy 
roots are dried and annually exported to the United States for use 
as a substitute for coffee or as an adulterant, many persons liking 
the flavor and considering the admixture to be not only more 
economical than pure coffee but also a more wholesome beverage. 
Stems two to four feet tall, round, hollow, sparsely hairy, much 
branched, changing with age from 
green to purplish red and becoming 
very hard and woody. Like the 
two preceding and all the following 
related species, its juices are milky 
and somewhat bitter. Root-leaves 
tufted, spreading on the ground, four 
to eight inches long, spatulate in 
outline but pinnatifid, narrowing into 
margined petioles, the surface rough, 
the midrib set with stiff hairs on the 
under side ; stem-leaves small, usually. 
entire, clasping and auricled at base. 
Heads one to four together in sessile 
clusters on the nearly naked branches ; 
but one in each cluster is open at one 
time, only in bright sunshine and is 
usually closed again by noon; heads. 
an inch or more broad, deep sky- 
blue, the rays five-toothed at the 
Fra. 362.— Chicory (Cichorium tips i bracts of the involucre green, 
Intybus). Xx. the inner row erect, the outer one 
~ short and spreading. Achenes brown, 
five-ribbed, crowned with a row of pointed scales; they are a 
frequent impurity of grass and clover seed. (Fig. 362.) 
Means of control 
Deep cutting, below the crown, with spud or hoe will usually 
kill Chicory. Or it may be grubbed out, or hand-pulled when 
the ground is sufficiently soft to yield its hold on the long, fleshy 
taproot. 
