84 LANGUAGE AND 
DANDELION. 
Leontodon taraxacum . . Class 19; Order 1 
ORACLE.-COQUETRY. 
As thinks 
The mariner of home, 
When doomed through many a dreary waste 
Of waters yet to roa-m,— 
Thus doth my spirit turn to thee, 
My guiding star o’er life’s wild sea. 
Mrs. Embury. 
How often you may have passed by this com¬ 
mon wild flower, the Dandelion, as a plant pos¬ 
sessing little attraction! And yet, not only is 
it extremely useful for manifold culinary and 
medicinal purposes, but, under its presumed 
oracular character, many a little beating heart 
has it caused to throb yet more merrily, or 
more wearily heave; many a bright eye has it 
made to gleam brighter with anticipated tri¬ 
umph, or dim with foreboding tears; for this 
golden-rayed blossom, like some others of its 
floral sisterhood, is often selected to decide its 
fair questioner’s fate: “ lie loves me,” or, “ lie 
loves me not.” Alas! what histories of joy or 
misery may the answers to those simple ques¬ 
tions betoken! 
To the school-boy who, bred up amid the 
secrets of Nature, often tries 
