Cichomcbb] SYNGENESIA 443 



L. longifolia. Mr. Am. 2. p. 85. 



Mso ? L. integrifolia. £*£«{. Bost. p. 287. £a/. Man. p. 197. 



Eloxoatkd Lactuca. Pt*/j5 — Wild Lettuce. 



Plant smooth. Root perennial? Stem 3 to 6 feet high, sparingly branched. 

 Lower leaves S to 12 inches long, and 2 to 3 or 4 inches wide, deeply runcinate, 

 sometimes sublyratc, often long-lanceolate with 2 or 3 conspicuous lanceolate di. 

 varicate segments on each side, near the middle ; segments dentate, or entire- 

 upper leaves gradually smaller, narrow-lanceolate, or lance-linear, long, and often 

 entire,— sometimes broad-oblanceolate, acuminate, and dentate? Heuds numer- 

 ous, subcylindric, in a long racemose panicle, sometimes the branches rather cor. 

 ymbose ; peduncles short, bracteate ; lower or outer leaflets of the involucre lance-" 

 ovate, spreading, inner leaflets longer, sublinear, appressed. Florets yellow. 

 Akenes compressed, elliptic-oblong, obscurely 3-nerved and margined, the central 

 nerve on each side keeled, the whole surface transversely rugulose and minutely 

 scabrous, with a slender beak at apex nearly as long as the akene, and supporting 

 the pappus at summit. 



Uab. Fence-rows, thickets, &c. frequent. Fl. July. FK August. 



Obs. The leaves of this plant are exceedingly variable in form ; and, as Dr. 

 Digelow remarks, when the main stem is cropped, or broken, young branches 

 shoot up with linear entire leaves, appearing like a different species, *I have spe. 

 cimensin which the leaves are all more or less obovate-lanceolate, acuminate 

 sinuatedentate, amplexicaul, and sagittate at base,— more resembling Sonchus 

 acuminatus, than the usual form of L. elongata : Yet Dr. Pickering thought 

 them not distinct from the present species. Two or three additional species are 

 enumerated in the U. States. 



364. LEONTODON. L. JVutt. Gen. 627. 

 (Greek, Leon, a lion, and Odous, a tooth ; from the toothed margins of the leaves.] 



Heads many-flowered. Involucre imbricated, with the leaflets appres- 

 sed, or the outer ones spreading. Akenes terete, or angular, denticulate 

 at apex, terminating in a long slender beak. Pappus in many series. 

 Receptacle rather convex, naked, punctate. 



1. L. Taraxacum, L. Leaves runcinate, dentate, smooth ; head 

 solitary, terminal, on a fistular scape ; outer leaflets of the involucre 

 rcflcxed. Beck, Bot. p. 168. 



Taraxacum Dens leonis. Less. Syn. p. 135. Vulgo— Dandelion. 



Gall.— Dent de Lion. Germ. — Der Loewenzahn. Ifisp. — Amargon. 



floo.' perennial. Leaves all radical, 4 to 12 inches long, and 1 to 2 or 3 inches wide, 

 lance-oblong, runcinate, somewhat pubescent, finally smooth. S>apee several 

 from the root, 4 to 12 or 15 inches in length (elongating), terete, fistular, smooth, 

 each bearing a single head of florets. Leaflets of the involucre numerous, some- 

 what in a double series,— the inner ones lance-linear, appressed, with scarious 

 margins,— the outer or lower ones reflexed. slightly ciliate,— at length the entire 

 involucre reflexed. Florets yellow. Akenes oblong, striate-ribbed and angular 

 minutely muricate. terminating in a beak which is short at first, finally about 3 

 fourths of an inch long, filiform, bearing the pappus at summit, and diverging in 

 all directions, forming a globose head. 



Hob. Pastures, roadsides, &c. very common. Fl. April— Aug. Fr. May -Sept. 



Obs. When the heads of florets first expand, the pappus is nearly sessile: as 



soonasthu fljrets shrivel, the inner series of the involucre closes up for a short 



