4 FARM FRIENDS AND FARM FOES 



leaves are spread out in a rosette; the lower ones are 

 the longest; the margins are deeply cut; they are bitter 

 and filled with a milky juice. The rosette habit, the 

 longer lower leaves, and the incised margins all help the 

 plant to get the most benefit possible from the sunlight; 

 while the bitter taste and milky juice render the leaves 

 unfit for animal food. 



The Dandelion flowers are borne on hollow cylindrical 

 stalks filled with a similar bitter juice and covered with a 

 woolly coating. By means of the hollow cylinder the 

 greatest strength is obtained in proportion to the amount 

 of material used, while the woolly coating makes the 

 ascent of ants and other wingless creatures difficult. 

 Several rows of green straplike, bracts surround the 

 flower head, forming what the botanists call the involucre. 

 With the help of these bracts the flowers close at night 

 and in rainy weather. This saves the pollen from being 

 Washed away by the rain, and probably helps the plant 

 by preventing radiation of heat. A large number of 

 little flowers are crowded together to make up what we 

 call the blossom, thus rendering it so conspicuous that it 

 is freely visited by bees, which carry the pollen from 

 flower to flower and thus bring about cross-pollination. 



When the little ovules have been fertilized by pollen, 

 the Dandelion closes up for a time in order to ripen its 

 seeds. Then the flower stem lengthens rapidly, generally 

 carrying the closed head above the surrounding grass. 

 When the seed ripens, the bracts open and the round 

 "blowball" appears, ready for the wind to carry the 

 seedlike akenes away. 



It is not strange that a plant with these advantages 

 should become a weed, crowding out others, and claiming 

 all the space and light and moisture wherever a few Dande- 



