■ — Luxf. Rcig. FI. p. 66. — Cow. FI. Guide, p. 51. — Mack. FI. llibevn. p. 165. — 
Tragopoyon pratense, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1109. — Huds. FI. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 335. — 
Gray’s Nat. Avr. v. ii. p. 431. — Lightf. FI. Scot. v. i. p. 426. — Bryant's FI. Uiictet. 
p. 48. — Sib. FI, Oxon. p. 236. — Abb. FI. Bedf. p. 168. — Irv. Lond. FI. p. 150. — 
Mack. Catal. PI. oflrel. p. 69. — Tragopogon luteum, Ray’s Syn. p. 171. — John- 
son’s Gerarde. p. 735. 
Localities. — Meadows and pastures ; not uncommon in ENGLAND ; more rare 
In SCOTLAND, and IRELAND. 
Biennial. — Flowers in June. 
Root tapering, and, like every other part of the plant, abounding 
with milky juice, which is rather bitter, but not acrid. Stem from 
1 to 2 feet high, upright, much branched, round, smooth, leafy. 
Leaves alternate, long and very narrow ; taper-pointed, the upper 
part often flaccid, or curled ; channelled on the upper side, keeled 
on the under, their base dilated, somewhat sheathing, and generally 
more or less undulated ; those from the root rather the broadest. 
Flowers large, two inches wide, bright yellow, solitary, on terminal, 
cylindrical peduncles, closing before noon, except in very cloudy 
weather. Scales of the involucrum spear-shaped, pointed, flat, 
equal ; in two series, as long as, or often longer than, the longest 
florets. Outer florets much longer than the rest, all 5-toothed at 
the apex. Jlnthers brown or purplish. Pollen yellow. Germen 
with a tuft of hair at the summit. Seeds large, curved, furrowed, 
rugged, light brown. Pappus radiated, and delicately feathered, 
on a long pedicel. 
The proportional lengths of the involucrum and the corolla ap- 
pear to be very variable in different individuals of this species. Mr. 
Woodward says, that in specimens gathered in Huntingdonshire 
the involucrum was always exactly equal to the outer florets, but 
that in Norfolk it invariably exceeded them. Mr. Stackhouse 
remarks, that the involucrum in Cornish plants is always much 
longer than the florets ; and Mr. Babington has found it with the 
. involucrum twice the length of the florets, at Bath, Cambridge, 
Shrewsbury, and in Needwood Forest. In the neighbourhood of 
Oxford, the involucrum in this species is much longer than the 
florets, in many instances twice as long. This being the case, the 
proportional lengths of the involucrum and corolla, as Mr. Babing- 
ton justly observes, appear to be useles as specific characters in 
this genus. 
Tragopoyon pratensis is a native of Europe and Siberia. In some parts of 
England it is called Buck’s-beard, from the German; and Gu-to-bed-at-noon, 
from the circumstance of the flowers closing about that time. The Rev. Mr. 
Plymley, in his General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire, however, says that 
he observed it to shut its flowers about nine o’clock in the morning, on clear days, 
in Leicestershire ; and that he was informed by an accurate Botanist in Edinburgh, 
that its flowers remain open till twelve, in clear weather, in that part of Scotland. 
According to the observations of Linnaius, the flowers open about three o’clock in 
the morning, and close between nine and ten. Before the stems shoot up, the roots, 
boiled like Asparagus, have the same flavour, and are nearly as nutricious. The 
spring shoots, when about three or four inches high, are also eaten by some in the 
same manner. 
Cows, sheep, and horses eat it ; swine devour it greedily ; goats are not fond’ 
of it. 
AUcidivm Tragopogonis, Pers. ; AS. Cichoracearum, Johnston’s FI. of Ber- 
wick, v. ii. p. 205, is sometimes parasitic on the stems, leaves, and involucrums of 
this plaut. 
The species usually cultivated in gardens for culinary purposes, is the Tragopo - 
yon porrif alius , ( Salsafy of the Gardens,) also a native of Britain ; but it is, by 
some, considered inferior to the "Common one, 
