60 
LEONTODON TARAXACUM. 
Spec. Char. Outer scales of the calyx reflected. Leaves 
runcinate, glabrous, toothed. 
The Leontodon Taraxacum is one of our common perennial 
plants, and is to be met with in grass fields, in lanes, and almost 
every uncultivated spot; the wind wafting the seeds to a great dis- 
tance there are few places in which this troublesome weed (for as such 
it is despised) may not be found. The English name given to this spe- 
cies of Leontodon* is a corruption of the French words dent de lion, 
lion's tooth, a name given to it from the supposed resemblance of 
the sinuosity of the leaves to the teeth of that animal; the latin 
name Leontodon has likewise its origin in this resemblance ; and the 
vulgar name given to it in this country doubtless originated from its 
diuretic properties. The roots are tapering, white, fleshyj, and 
milky within, externally of a yellowish brown j the stems (or scapes) 
grow erect, round, smooth, tubular, and terminated each by a 
single flower; the leaves are numerous, and spring from the root, 
and are deeply divided into sharp lobes, or runcinate ; the general 
calyx is imbricated, oblong, the outer squamae turning back: the 
flower, which is composed of a great number of monopetalous, 
ligulate, truncated, five-toothed (or quinquedentate) florets ; each 
floret enclosing five stamens, which unite and form a cylindrical 
tube; the filaments are capillary and slender ; antherae tubulose ; the 
germen is obovate ; style slender, cylindrical, and the length of the 
corolla, suppporting two revolute stigmata ; the receptacle convex, 
and dotted with little holes ; the seeds are oblong, flattish, striated, 
and grooved, at the top prickly, of a yellow brown, crowned with 
a radiated pappus, supported on a short pedicle. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties and Qualities. 
Every part of this plant contains a bitter milky juice, which is most 
abundant in the roots ; the whole plant is nearly inodorous, its taste 
gently bitter, combined with sweet, and acrid ; from analysis, it is 
found to contain caoutchouc, gluten, extractive, and a bitter principle. 
The expressed juice is whitish, and is thought to contain tartaric 
acid, as it reddens litmus and other vegetable blues. A decoction 
yields a precipitate with nitrate of silver, muriate of mercury, sul- 
phate of iron, and acetate of lead. 
* The genus Leontodon comprises eight or more species, of which the Leontodon 
Palustre or Lividus (Marsh Dandelion) is also a native of Britain ; and maj be dis- 
tinguished from the Taraxacnm by the leaves, which are less indented, by the outer 
scales of the calyx not being reflected, and by being altogether a smaller plant. 
