888 SYNGENESIA. A5QUALIS. Leontodon, 
Common Dandelion, (from the French Dent de Lion. Irish: Beaman 
Bearnagh. Welsh: Bant y llew cyffredin. Gaelic: Am bear nan-bride. 
L. officinale. With. Ed. 4. Hull. L. Taraxacum. Linn. E.) Meadows, 
pastures, road sides, ditch banks, &c. P. April—Sept.* 
Var. 2. Leaves narrower, fewer, more deeply cloven. Seeds reddish-, 
brown. Ray. 
Pet.11. 8. 
Grows along with var. 1. and flowers most of the summer. 
Var. 3. Palustris. Outer scales of the calyx upright, close to the inner, 
entire; leaves spear-shaped, very entire, or only toothed. 
(jE. Bot. 553. E.)— Scop. AS, at ii. p. 100. 
Moot-leaves oblong, broader towards the end, pointed with teeth, smooth, 
mid-rib red. Calyx smooth; outer scales egg-shaped, pointed, some¬ 
what membranous at the edge ; the inner strap-shaped. Lyons. Calyx , 
the lowermost scales at first upright, afterwards bent back. Huds. 
(That very accurate Botanist Mr. Dawson Turner appears to have enjoyed 
most favourable opportunities of remarking this plant, the L. palustre 
of FI. Brit. Lyons, and Relhan; L. Taraxacon of With. Ed. 3: and 
he thence infers that it is not specifically distinct from L. Taraxacum. 
He states, they both grew abundantly in the marshes about Yarmouth, 
and I constantly remark that though all which are found in the wettest 
places are clearly L.palustre, yet, as the soil becomes dry, the scales of the 
calyx are less erect, the colour is less purple and shining, and the leaves 
take regularly more and more of a runcinate form, till at last they quite 
lose themselves in the common species. Bot. Guide, p. 441. Messrs. 
Hooker and Greville also entertain doubts of this species. 
* Early in the spring, whilst the leaves are yet white, and hardly unfolded, they are an 
excellent ingredient in salads. (It may be readily blanched by cultivation : (by which mean 
it is in a great measure deprived of its acrid juice), and its use is supposed to have been 
introduced by French refugees. E.) The French eat the roots and the blanched leaves, with 
bread and butter.—(At Gottingen, the roots roasted are used by the poor as a substitute for 
coffee. Along the. banks of the Rhine, Dandelion is especially cultivated for this purpose. 
Rev. H. T. Ellicombe. E.) Children that eat the plant in the evening experience its diuretic 
effect, hence the origin of a vulgar name both in this country and among other European 
nations. When a swarm of Locusts had destroyed the harvest in the island of Minorca, 
many of the inhabitants subsisted upon this plant. The expressed juice has been given, 
to the quantity of four ounces, three or four times a day; and Boerhaave had a great 
opinion of the utility of this and other lactescent plants in visceral obstructions. (As a 
deobstruent, no plant excels it. The expressed juice is the most efficacious way of giving 
it; next to that the extract. I often join with it advantageously the common Fumitory. 
Purton. The globular white heads, formed by the expansion of the pappus or down, afford 
amusement to children; 
se Dandelion with globe of down, 
The school-boy’s clock in every town. 
While the truant puffs amain 
To conjure lost hours back again.” 
At rural fetes we have likewise observed the youngsters aiding the music of the merry 
dance with a humble imitation of Pandean pipes, made of the hollow flower-stalks fitted 
into each other. E.)—Goats eat it; swine devour it greedily; sheep and cows are not 
fond of it; horses refuse it ; the seeds are acceptable to small birds. Phalcena Fascelina and 
Thrips Physopus feed upon it. Linn. ( Cryptor.ephalus sericeus harbours in the flowers. 
The milky juice is most abundant in the root before the flower-stem shoots up. The 
bitterness is destroyed by drying, therefore the recent roots only should be used. £>rs. W, 
Philips and Pemberton have published in its favour. E*) 
