_ Sonchus.] XLII. COMPOSITA, 263 
nearly the geographical range of S. arvensis, but appears to be more 
confined to eastern Europe, and nowhere common. In Britain, very 
rare, the only certain localities being in the marshes of some of the 
eastern counties of England. fl. lute swmmer, or autumn. 
_ 8. S. oleraceus, Linn. (fig. 594). Common S.—An annual, with a 
rather thick hollow stem, 1 to 3 or even 4 feet high, perfectly clabrous, 
except occasionally a very few stiff glandular hairs on the peduncles. 
Leaves thin, pinnatifid, with a broad, heart-shaped or triangular ter- 
minal lobe, bordered with irregular, pointed or prickly teeth, and a few 
smaller lobes or coarse teeth along the broad leafstalk ; the upper leaves 
narrow and clasping the stem with short auricles. Flower-heads rather - 
small, in a short corymbose panicle, sometimes almost umbellate; the 
involucres remarkably conical after flowering. Florets of a pale yellow. 
Achenes flattened, with longitudinal ribs often marked with transverse 
wrinkles or asperities, the pappus of copious snow-white hairs. 
A weed of cultivation, so universally distributed over the globe, except 
perhaps some tropical districts, that the limits of its native country 
cannot now be fixed; probably truly indigenous in Europe and central 
Asia. Very abundant in Britain. Fl. the whole season. S. asper, Hoftm., 
or Prickly S., is a marked variety, in which the longitudinal ribs of the 
achenes have not the transverse wrinkles. The leaves are usually darker 
in colour and less divided, but much more closely bordered with prickly 
teeth ; and the auricles which clasp the stem are broader, rounded, and 
more prickly toothed ; none of these characters are, however, constant. 
It is almost always mixed with S. oleraceus, and in many places as 
abundant. 
XXXVI. TARAXACUM. DANDELION. 
Herbs, with a perennial rootstock, radical leaves, and radical peduncles, 
with single heads of yellow flowers. Involucres of several nearly equal, 
erect, inner bracts, and several imbricated or recurved outer ones. Recep- 
tacle without scales. Achenes tapering into a long slender beak, with a 
pappus of numerous simple hairs. 
A widely diffused genus, of which all the described species may 
perhaps be considered as varieties of a single one, differing from 
Leontodon in the simple hairs of the pappus. and from Crepis chiefly in 
the leafless simple peduncles. 
1. T. Dens-leonis, Desf. (fig. 595). Common Dandelion.—The root- 
stock descends into a thick tap-root, black on the outside, and very 
bitter. Leaves varying from linear-lanceolate and almost entire to 
deeply pinnatifid, with broad triangular lobes usually pointing down- 
wards, the terminal one larger, obovate or acute. Peduncles 2 to 6 or 
8 inches high. Involucral bracts linear, often thickened towards the 
top, or with a tooth on the back below the point. Achenes slightly or 
not at all compressed, striated, marked upwards with short, pointed 
ee tes, the beak two or three times as long as the achene itself. 
T. officinale, Web. 
In meadows and pastures, cultivated and waste places, throughout 
the northern hemisphere to the Arctic regions, and now a troublesome 
weed in most parts of the world. Among the numerous forms which 
