LEO 
the purity and elegance of its ftyle, and the truly Attic 
turn of the expreflions. Leontium had alfo a daughter 
who married Sophron. Cic. de Nat. D. c. 33. 
LEON'TIUS, a man’s name ; a famous engraver. 
LEON'TIUS PILA'TUS. See Pilatus. 
LEON'TIUS SCHOLAS'TICUS, an ecclefiaftical hif- 
torian and controverfial writer in the fixth century, was a 
native of Conftantinople, educated an advocate, and af¬ 
terwards became a monk in the laura of St. Sabas in Pa- 
leftine. He lived till about the end of the century ; for 
he reckons Eulogius among the bifhops of Alexandria, 
who held that fee from the year 581 to the year 604. 
Though frequently confounded with Leontius Byzace- 
r.us, who is mentioned in the life of St. Sabas and St. Qui- 
riacus, it is denionftrable that they muft have been two 
different perfons, from the circumftance of the latter’s 
having been an Origenian, and defending the doctrines of 
Theodore of Mopfueftia ; while the fubject of the prefent 
article, on the contrary, declared openly again(t Origen 
and Theodore. Voffius is of opinion, that he is the fame 
perfon with Leontius, a bilhop of Cyprus, author of “An 
Apology for the Chriftians againft the Jews,” and other 
pieces mentioned by Cave; which is not entirely deftitute 
of probability. The principal work of Leontius is “A 
Treatife on the Sefts of Heretics,” divided into ten ac¬ 
tions, or difcourfes. It was publiflied in Greek anij La¬ 
tin at Bafil, in 1578, 8vo. and is inferted in the firft vo¬ 
lume of the Auftuar. Bibl. Patr. He was alfo the author 
of various treatifes againft the Eutychians, Neftorians, 
Apollinarifts, See. which may be feen in the ninth vo¬ 
lume of the Bibl. Patr. and in the fourth volume of the 
Antiquas Leftiones of Canifius; a difeourfe on the fefti*. 
val celebrated between Eallerand Whitfunday, printed in 
Greek and Latin, with notes, in the firft volume of Com- 
befi’s Auiftuar. Nov. and fome Orations, Homilies, &c. 
aferibed to him, are preferved in the Bodleian and Vienna 
libraries. Fabricii Bibl. Grcsc. Cave's Hijl. Lit. 
LEONTO'DON, f. [Gr. lion’s-tooth ; fo called from 
the toothing of the leaves.] Dandelion; in botany, a 
genus of the clafs fyngenefia, order polygamia aequalis, 
natural order of compoiitae femiflofculofi, (cichoraceas, 
JitJf.) The generic characters are—Calyx : common im¬ 
bricate, oblong ; feales, interior linear, parallel, equal; ex¬ 
terior fewer, often reflex at the bafe. Corolla: compound 
imbricate, uniform; corollets hermaphrodite, numerous, 
equal. Proper one-petalled, ftrap-fhaped, linear, trun¬ 
cated, five-toothed. Stamina: filaments five, capillary, 
very fhort; antheras cylindric, tubular. Piftillum: germ 
fubovate ; ftyle filiform, length of the corollet; ftigtnas 
two, revolute. Pericarpium: none; calyx oblong, ftraight, 
at length reflex. Seeds: folitary, oblong, rough; down 
capillary, foot-ftalked. Receptaculum ; naked, dotted.— 
EJfential CharaBer. Calyx imbricate, with loofifli feales ; 
down capillary; receptaculum naked, dotted. 
Moft of the fpecies that were ranged by Linnaeus under 
this genus have been feparated by fubfequent authors, on 
account of a difference in the calyx, down, and receptacle. 
Leontodon hifpidum, birtum, danubiale, haftile, tubero- 
fum, autumnale, pyrenaicum, alpinum, may be found un¬ 
der Apargia ; vol. i. p. 786. and Leontodon tomentofum 
is the fame with Tuflilago albicans. Perhaps none of the 
fpecies but the firft ought to have remained under this ge¬ 
nus. The following are the effential characters of the 
three genera into which this has been feparated. 
Apargia. Calyx fubimbricate with linear parallel un¬ 
equal feales. Down plumofe, fubfeflile. Receptaculum 
naked, fubvillofe.' 
Hedypnois. Calyx calycled with fhort feales. Down 
none to the outer feeds; the inner have five, almoft eredt,. 
awned chaffs. Receptaculum naked. 
Leontodon. Calyx imbricate with loofifli feales. Down 
capillary. Receptaculum naked, dotted. 
Species. 1. Leontodon taraxacum, or common dande¬ 
lion s lower calycine feales reflex 5 leaves runcinate, 
LEO 490 
toothletted, even. See Botany Plate V. fig. 82. vol. i if. 
p. 244. Root perennial, tapering, milky, pale brown. 
Leaves varying from pinnatifid or deeply runcinate in a 
very dry fituation, to nearly entire in a very moift one, ge¬ 
nerally fmootb, but fometimes a little rough. A Angle 
large yellow flower is fupported on a hollow milky fcape, 
covered with a kind of down towards the top ; calyx 
fmooth, glaucous; the feales perfeftly fmooth, the lowefl: 
turning back; the flowers fometimes contain more than 
a hundred and forty florets. Seeds a little crooked, flat- 
tifh, fomewhat four-cornered, ftriated or grooved, prickly 
at top, of a pale olive colour. Down on a long itipe or 
foot-ftalk, Ample not feathered, fhorter than the ftipe. 
Receptacle naked, full of little holes. Dandelion is com¬ 
mon all over Europe in meadows, on walls, dry banks. 
See. it is a common weed in gardens, and flowers from 
April to September; the flowers expand about five or fix 
in the morning, and clofe early in the afternoon. As the 
flower advances, the calyx is gradually preffed out at top ; 
when the flowering is part, it contrafts again into a coni¬ 
cal form ; and finally, when the feeds are mature, the ca¬ 
lyx is again pufhed back, and the aggregate of down af- 
fumes a fpherical form, till the whole is loofened and difli- 
pated by the wind. Early in the fpring, whiift the leaves- 
are hardly unfolded, they are no bad ingredient in falads. 
The French eat the roots, and the leaves blanched, with 
bread and butter. Its diuretic effects have given it a vul¬ 
gar name, not only in England, but other European na¬ 
tions. The expreffed juice has been given to the quan¬ 
tity of four ounces, three or four times a-day ; and Boer- 
haave had a great opinion of the utility of this and other 
milky plants in vifceral obftrudtions. When a fwarm of 
locufts had deftroyed the harveft in the ifland of Minorca, 
many of the inhabitants fublifted upon this plant. Goats 
eat it; fwine devour it greedily ; flieep and kine are not 
fond of it; horfes refule it; linall birds are fond of the 
feeds. 
Our common name of dandelion is corrupted from the- 
French dent de lion, which was given it from the toothing- 
of the leaves. 
z. Leontodon bulbofum, or bulbous dandelion : leaves 
oblong-ovate, fomewhat toothed, fmooth ; calyx even;. 
fcape rough-haired at top. Root tuberous. Leaves atte- 
nuate-petioled, fub-fpatulate. Native of Montpellier and 
Italy. 
3. Leontodon aureum, or golden dandelion : leaves 
runcinate; (tern one-leafed ; calyx hifpid. Root peren¬ 
nial, end-bitten, the thicknefs of a reed or of the human 
finger, with long white fibres, white on the inlide, but 
ufually blackifli without. Leaves all radical, fometimes 
very few, fometimes more, oblong,' narrowing gradually 
towards the bafe, bright green, fmooth on both iides, un¬ 
equally finuate-toothed, blunt, fometimes with a fmall 
point. The flower is elegant, each floret being yellow on 
the infide, but faftron-coloured on the outfide, both co¬ 
lours turning deeper. Linnaeus remarks, that it has the 
leaves of L. taraxacum, but fmaller and blunter ; the fcape- 
naked-and ftriated, with a linear leaflet in the middle; 
the calyx brown, upright, rough-haired at the bafe, 
with the keels of the leaflets ciliate; the corolla tawny,, 
red underneath; the receptacle villofe. This plant, hav¬ 
ing a Ample down, cannot be an Apargia ; and, having the 
down feffde, the feales of the calyx eretff, and the recepta¬ 
cle villofe, it is not properly a Leontodon. Native of Swif- 
ferland, Aultria, and Italy : introduced in 1769, by Monft. 
Richard. 
4. Leontodon muricatum, or prickly' dandelion : leaves 
runcinate, rugged ; calyxes muricated, imbricate, loofe,. 
fomewhat reclining. The whole plant is rugged and 
milky. Root perennial, fufiform, almoft Ample. Stems 
diffufed, a foot and a half high, branched, round, flex- 
uofe, fomewhat ftriated, muricated, milky, red. Branches 
alternate, refembling the ftem. Root-leaves proftrate, pe- 
tioled, longer 3 ftem-leaves half-embracing, alternate,, 
fpreading 3, 
