Root tapering, often ending abruptly, as if bitten off ; of a dark 
brown colour, furnished with numerous fibres of a paler colour, 
running straight into the earth. Leaves numerous, oblong, or some- 
what spear-shaped, bluntish, tapering at the base into a leaf-stalk, 
indented and toothed, of a pale green colour, hairy, hairs generally 
forked at the extremity, sometimes simple, or 3-cleft. Scapes 
( stalks ) usually several from the same root, upright, from 8 inches 
to a foot, or a foot and a half high, simple, round, hollow, without 
bracteas, rough with similar hairs to those of the leaves, striated 
and thickened upwards, purplish at the base. Flowers drooping 
in the bud, upright when expanded, smaller than those of the 
common Dandelion (t. 163). Involucrum (fig. 1.) somewhat egg- 
shaped, hairy, of a brownish green colour. Florets (fig. 2.) strap- 
shaped, bright yellow, the outer ones greenish or reddish beneath ; 
all with a few long, yellow, upright hairs at the top of the tube 
externally, and a small triangular tuft of brown glands at the back 
of each of their 5 teeth ; these glands were first noticed by the late 
Mr. Sowerey. Seed uniform, oblong, slender, nearly as long as 
the pappus, which is sessile, and consists of numerous feathery 
rays, unequal in length. Receptacle (see fig. 4.) flat, naked, and 
dotted. 
This plant is subject to much variation, both in size and hairiness. 
It is common in meadows and pastures almost everywhere, but 
especially on a chalky or lime-stone soil. “ In such sort of pas- 
tures,” observes Mr. Curtis, “ it abounds as much as the common 
Dandelion does in rich cultivated ones ; and when in flower, which 
is usually in July, cloaths them in the same golden livery.” 
According to the observations of Linnaeus, the flowers open at 
four o’clock in the morning, and close at three in the afternoon. 
A variety of this, with the involucrum and the scape (except 
about 2 or 3 inches at the base of the latter) destitute of hairs, 
grows in the old stone-pits at Headington Quarry, near Oxford, 
where I observed it, in flower, June 15, 1831. 
“ Flowers! Flowers! bright merry-faced flowers ! 
I bless ye in joyous or saddened hours : 
I love ye dearly, 
Ye look so cheerly. 
In Summer, Autumn, Winter, or Spring, 
A flower is to me the loveliest thing 
That hath its birth 
On this chequered earth : — 
Oh ! who will not chorus the lay I sing ! 
Flowers ! Flowers ! who loveth them not I 
Who hath his childhood’s sports forgot ? 
When daisies white, 
And king-cups bright, 
And snowdrops, cowslips, and daffodils 
Lured us to meadows, and woods and rills ; 
And we wandered on. 
Till a wreath w as won 
Of the heather-bells crowning the far-off hills.” 
L. A. TWAMLEY. 
