1886. | A Study of the Dandelion. 5 
A STUDY OF THE DANDELION. 
BY E. LEWIS STURTEVANT, M.D. 
HE dandelion is a plant of northern climates, especially 
found growing amidst the herbage of meadows, and as a 
weed in gardens. Its common name is a corruption of dent de 
leon, a word which is met with in the Welsh Dant y Llew of the 
13th century. Its vernacular names in various languages have 
usually reference to the peculiar indentation of the leaves, or to 
some other resemblance or character of the plant. By commen- 
tators it has been identified with the aphake of Theophrastus, æ 
in composition signifying absence of, and pake lentils, or the 
name perhaps signifying that the plant can be used as a green 
before lentils appear in the spring (?); the amdudeia of Pliny may 
suggest the scattering of the seed, améu/o meaning the going 
backward and forward, but some commentators assign this name 
to the wild endive or chicory; the edypnois of Pliny is but 
doubtfully identified with our dandelion, and appears to be de- 
rived from two Greek words signifying sweet breath, and may 
refer to the sweet smell of the flowers. Pinzeus, 1561, calls it Dens 
Leonis, Dens Caninus, caput Monachi, Rostru porcinum or Ambubeia, 
the aphake of Theophrastus; by the French, Pissenlit or Dent de 
Lyon ; by the Germans, Pfaffen roerlin. Pena and Lobel, 1570, 
give additional names of Urinaria, German Korlkraut and Phaffen- 
blat, Belgian Pappen cruyt, English Dent de Lyon. The modern 
vernacular names are: English dandelion, swine's snout (Prior); 
France pisseniit, dent-de-lion (Vilm.); German /owenzahn (Lenz) ; 
Flanders molsalaad (Vilm.); Danish moelkebtte (Vilm.) ; Italian 
tarassaco (Lenz), dente de leone, virasole dei prati (Vilm.); Span- 
ish diente de leon, Amargon (Vilm.); Greek agriomaroulia (Sibth.), — 
pikraphake (Fraas); Japanese fosei or usually fudsina or tsugumi 
| gusee or tampopo (Pick.). - 
Bauhin, in his Pinax, edition of 1623, enumerates two varieties 
of dandelion, one the Dens Leonis latiore filio carried back in 
his synonomy to Brunselsius, 1539 ; the other, Dens Leonis an- — 
gustiore folio, carried back in like manner to Cesalpinus, ale 
The first kind, he says, has a large and a medium variety, the 
leaves sometimes pointed, sometimes obtuse. In the Flore Natu- — 
relle et Economique, Paris, 1803, the same varieties, apparently, — 
are mentioned, one with narrow leaves and the other with large — 
