The Dandelion (_Taraxacum Dens-leonis_ or _T. officinale_) is equally familiar as a meadow and wayside plant, commencing to flower in March, and continuing in bloom till October. It has a thick tap-root, with a very bitter taste; and direct from the crown of this grow the spreading leaves and the hollow stalks of the solitary flower-heads. The former vary very considerably in shape, but are usually long and narrow, broader at the apex, and cut into triangular lobes which generally point backwards. Sometimes, however, the leaves are almost entire; and they also vary in colour, from a bright to a very dull green. The peduncles vary from two to eight inches in length; and the florets of the head, which are all yellow, are surrounded by an inner whorl of narrow, erect bracts, and outer bracts which either overlap or are turned back on the stalk. The little fruits have projecting points towards the top, and are provided with a slender beak, three or four times as long as the achene itself, at the summit of which is a tuft of silky hairs.
Our last example of the composite flowers is the Butterbur, variously named _Tussilago vulgaris_, _Petasites vulgaris_, and _Tussilago Petasites_. It resembles the Common Colt's-foot (_Tussilago Farfara_) in several respects; and, as will be seen from the above names, is sometimes included in the same genus. Its leaves are very large, and very similar to those of the Colt's-foot, being cordate and toothed, and appearing after the flowers. The flowering stems each bear a dense cluster of dull pink or purple heads, forming a raceme from four inches to a foot in height. The pistillate and staminate flowers grow almost exclusively on separate plants. In the former case the heads are larger and densely clustered, each one consisting of filiform, pistillate florets only, or almost entirely of these with a few tubular, staminate florets in the centre. On other plants the flower-heads are smaller and not so densely clustered; and each head consists entirely of tubular, male flowers, or has a few filiform, female florets round the outside. The plant is common in many parts of Britain. It grows in damp meadows, especially along the banks of streams and ditches, flowering from March to May.