MOUSE-EAR HAW KWEED 139 
deeply cut; they have sharp lobes pointing back- 
wards, and they bear no hairs either above or 
beneath. The leaves of the Dandelion are described 
as runcinate. The plant gets its common name 
from their shape ; their lobes have some resemblance 
to lion’s teeth, and the name ‘‘ Dandelion ” comes 
from the French Dent-de-lion =lion’s tooth. 
You must not jump to hasty conclusions, or you 
will make many mistakes. The plant which you 
thought to be a small Dandelion is really the — 
Mouse-ear Hawkweed. Both plants belong to the 
same Natural Order; they are compound flowers ; 
but they belong to different genera, or families. 
You can see other differences than those I have 
called attention to; the heads of the Mouse-ear 
Hawkweed are smaller than those of the Dandelion, 
and if you look underneath the strap-shaped petals, 
you will notice they are tinged with red; and the 
flower as a whole is lemon-coloured, and brighter 
than the Dandelion. The Mouse-ear Hawkweed, 
too, does what the Dandelion is not able to do: it 
sends out creeping runners (scons or stoles) from 
the crown of its root, and these scions root at 
intervals, like those of the strawberry. We have 
many Dandelion-like flowers that are not Dande- 
lions. The Hawkweed family has many species, 
and its species often vary in some details. On the 
whole, they are about as troublesome a lot as you 
are likely to meet with. I have spent many a 
brain-splitting hour in the effort to determine the 
name of an uncommon variety. 
Now, how are you to go about the work of 
identifying flowers ? 
