10 
LITTLE WANDERERS. 
1. A cluster of 
flowers. 
2. One flower 
(magnified). 
Dandelion plants have a wise way of protecting their 
seed children until the time for flight. 
The flower buds come out of the center of the leaf 
rosette, close to the ground. They have very short 
g^^ steins and seem to sit right on the 
rosette. 
There are a great many flowers in one 
dandelion head. Each little yellow part 
of the dandelion flower head is a separate 
blossom, and each separate blossom has 
one seed case with a seed inside growing 
to the bottom of it. 
1 All of these blossoms are shut up at 
first in a case of green, leaf-like parts, 
and form the bud. 
As the bud grows older its stem lengthens a little, 
as you can see in the picture on page 9 — unless it 
is on a lawn. Then it does not lengthen ; it seems to 
know the lawn mower 
will come along and take 
off its head if it grows 
taller, so it stays close to 
the ground. After a while 
the green bud opens, the many little yellow flowers 
push their way out, and the dandelion is in bloom. 
Towards night the dandelion shuts up again ; the 
tiny yellow flowers press close together, and the outer 
The bud. 
