IRDel.

G Mathews. S

LEO'NTO DON*.

Linnean Class and Order. SYNGENESIA†, POLY'GAMIA EQUALIS.

Natural Order. COMPO'SITE§, Linnæus and Adanson.Tribe, CICHORA'CEE, Lindl. Syn. pp. 140, 142, & 156.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. pp. 197 & 201.-Loud. Hort. Brit. pp. 520 & 521.-CICHORACEE, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 168.-Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 120.-SYNANTHE'REE, Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 454.SYRINGALES; subord. ASTEROSÆ; sect. ASTERINÆ; subsect. ASTERIANÆ; type, CICHORACEE; Burn. Outl. of Bot. pp. 900, 901, 920, 924, & 935.

GEN. CHAR. Involucrum (common calyx) (figs. 1 & 5.) oblong, double; innermost of several strap-shaped, equal, parallel scales; outer of fewer and shorter, lax and reflexed ones, at the base. Corolla compound, imbricated; florets (fig. 2.) very numerous, equal, perfect, strap-shaped, blunt, with 5 teeth. Filaments (see fig. 3.) 5, hair-like, short. Anthers (see figs. 2 & 3.) united into a cylindrical tube. Germen (see fig. 3.) inversely egg-shaped, furrowed. Style (see fig. 3.) cylindrical, prominent. Stigmas (see fig. 3.) 2, revolute. Seed-vessel none. Involucrum converging, finally altogether reflexed (see fig. 5). Seed (see fig. 4.) inversely egg-shaped, furrowed, rough. Pappus (down) (fig. 4.) hair-like, radiating, on a long cylindrical stalk. Receptacle (see fig. 5.) naked, convex, pitted.

Distinguished from other genera, with strap-shaped florets, in the same class and order, by the naked receptacle; stalked, simple pappus; and the imbricated, double involucrum with the outermost scales lax and reflexed.

Two species British.

LEO'NTODON TARA'XACUM. Common Dandelion ||.

SPEC. CHAR. Outer scales of the involucrum (calyx) reflexed. Leaves runcinate, smooth, toothed.

Engl. Bot. t. 510.-Curt. Fl. Lond. t. 58.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 1122.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 339.-Sm. Fl. Brit. v. ii. p. 822. Engl. Fl. v. ii. p. 349.With (7th ed.) v. iii. p. 887.-Lindl. Syn. p. 158.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 340.— Lightf. Fl. Scot. v. i. p. 432.-Woody. Med. Bot. v. i. p. 7. t. 3.--Steph. and Church. Med. Bot. v. i. t. 5.-Abbot's Fl. Bedf. p. 169.-Purt. Midl. Fl. v. ii. p. 365.-Relh. Fl. Cant. (3rd ed.) p. 319.-Thorn. Fam. Herb. p. 676.-Hook. Fl. Scot. p. 227.-Grev. Fl. Edin. p. 166.-Fl. Devon. pp. 130 & 155.-Johns. Fl. of Berw. v. i. p. 174.--Walk. Fl. of Oxf. p. 223.-Bab. Fl. Bath. p. 28.--Mack. Catal. of Pl. of Irel. p. 69.-Taraxacum officinale, Gray's Nat. Arr. v. ii. p. 426.-Sibth. Fl. Oxon. p. 239.-Dens leonis, Ray's Syn. p. 170.Johnson's Gerarde, p. 290.

LOCALITIES.-In meadows and pastures, and in waste and cultivated ground, every where.

Fig. 1. Involucrum.-Fig. 2. A Floret.-Fig. 3. Germen, Style, and Stamens. -Fig. 4. A Seed, with its stalked pappus.-Fig. 5. Receptacle, and reflexed Involucrum.

*From leon, Gr. a lion; and odous, Gr. a tooth, from the tooth-like margins of the leaves. HOOKER.

+ See folio 91.

See folio 147.

See folio 27, a.

From Dent de lion, Fr. From the supposed resemblance of the leaf to the tooth of the lion. WALKER.

Perennial.-Flowers from April to September.

Root spindle-shaped, very milky, of a dark brown colour on the outside. Leaves all radical, numerous, spreading, bright shining green, smooth, tapering downwards, more or less deeply wingcleft (pinnatifid), with sharp, unequally toothed lobes, which point downwards, and constitute what, in botanical language, is called a runcinate or lion-toothed leaf. Flower-stalks upright, smooth, sometimes slightly cottony, cylindrical, hollow, brittle, from 3 to 10 inches high, 1-flowered. Flowers large and handsome, of a bright deep yellow, expanding in a morning and in fine weather only. Outer scales of the involucrum several, linear-oblong, loosely recurved and wavy; the inner becoming reflexed close to the stalk as the seeds ripen, leaving the light globe, nearly 2 inches in diameter, formed by their radiating down or pappus, quite exposed, till dispersed by the wind. Seeds a little crooked, flattish, scored, prickly upwards. Pappus on a long pedicel, radiate, simple, not feathery, shorter than the pedicel. Receptacle dotted.

I found a plant of this species with spotted leaves, like those of Hieracium maculatum, in Shotover Plantations, April 16, 1831. A variety with fewer, and narrower leaves, with their segments more deeply cloven, sometimes occurs on dry grassy banks, and on the tops of walls.

"There are few plants," observes Mr. KNAPP," which we look upon with more perfect contempt than that common product of every soil, the Dandelion.' Every child knows it, and the little village groups which perambulate the hedges for the first offspring of the year, amuse themselves by hanging cirelets of its stalks linked like a chain round their necks; yet if we examine this in all the stages of its growth, we shall pronounce it a beautiful production; and its blossom, though often a solitary one, is perhaps the very first that enlivens the sunny bank of the hedge in the opening year, peeping out from withered leaves, dry stalks, and desolation, as a herald, telling us that nature is not dead, but reposing, and will awaken to life again. And some of us, perhaps, can remember the pleasure it afforded us in early days, when we first noticed its golden blossoms under the southern shelter of the cottage hedge, thinking that the winter was past,' and that the time of the singing of birds was come,' and yet, possibly, when seen, it may renew some of that childish delight, though the fervour of expectation is cooled by experience and time. The form of this flower, with its ligulate petals (florets) many times doubled, is elegant and perfect; the brightness and liveliness of the yellow, like the warm rays of an evening sun, are not exceeded in any blossom, native or foreign, that I know of; and this, having faded away, is succeeded by a head of down, which loosened from its receptacle, and floating in the breeze, comes sailing calmly along before us, freighted with a seed at its base; but so accurately adjusted is its bouyant power to the burden it bears, that steadily passing on its way, it rests at last in some cleft or cranny in the earth, preparatory to its period of germination, appearing more like a flight of animated creatures than the seed of a plant. This is a very beautiful appointment! but so common an event as hardly to be noticed by us; yet it accomplishes effectually the designs of nature, and plants the species at distances and in places that no other contrivance could so easily and fitly effect."-Journal of a Naturalist.

The Dandelion has sometimes, when blanched, been introduced on our tables in salad, but its bitterness is too powerful to allow it to be a pleasant food. When a swarm of locusts had destroyed the harvest in Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted on this plant; and at Gottingen the roots are roasted, and used to improve the flavour of coffee, instead of Cichory, which is in universal use on the Continent for the same purpose. It is in some repute as a medicine; and in the hepatic complaints of persons long resident in warm climates, it often affords very marked relief. It is tonic, and promotes the various secretions, forming likewise an excellent food for milch cows; and, from its influence over the excretions of the kidnies, probably arose its vulgar name, which is found identical in several languages.

Uredo Cichoracearum, Grev. Fl. Edin, p. 435, is common on both sides of the living leaves of this plant in Summer and Autumn.