[Sidenote: =Chicory, Blue Sailors=
_Cichòrium Íntybus_
=Blue
Summer, autumn
Northwest, etc.=]
This is a straggling plant, from one to three feet tall, a perennial,
with a long, deep tap-root, stiff, branching stems, and leaves
irregularly slashed into toothed lobes and chiefly from the root. The
pretty flowers are from an inch to an inch and a half across, much like
those of Desert Chicory, but very brilliant blue, occasionally white.
This plant has escaped from cultivation and is now very common in waste
places and along roadsides in the East and often found in the West. The
ground-up root is used as a substitute for coffee. There is a picture
in Mathews' _Field Book_.
There are several kinds of Microseris, rather difficult to distinguish.
[Sidenote: =Silver-puffs=
_Microsèris linearifòlia_
=Yellow
Spring
Southwest, Nev.=]
This is about a foot tall, with smooth, hollow flower-stems, smooth
leaves, and rather small yellow flowers, not particularly pretty. The
"gone-to-seed" flower-heads are, however, very conspicuous, for they
are nearly an inch and a half across, and each seed is tipped by a
little silvery paper star, the effect before the wind carries them away
being exceedingly pretty, a good deal like a Dandelion puff. This grows
in the Grand Canyon on the plateau.
There are many kinds of Sonchus, natives of the Old World.
[Sidenote: =Sow Thistle=
_Sónchus oleràceus_
=Yellow
All seasons
West, etc.=]
A common weed, from Europe, found across the continent, coarse but
decorative in form, with a stout leafy stem, from one to four feet
tall, and smooth leaves, with some soft prickles on the edges, the
upper ones clasping the stem and the lower ones with leaf-stalks. The
pale yellow flowers are three-quarters of an inch or more across.
There are several kinds of Taraxacum, natives of the northern
hemisphere and southern South America.
[Sidenote: =Dandelion=
_Taráxacum Taráxacum_
=Yellow
All seasons
U. S., etc.=]
This is a weed in all civilized parts of the world, growing in
meadows, fields, and waste places. It has a thick, deep, bitter root,
a tuft of root-leaves, slashed into toothed lobes, and several hollow
flower-stalks, from two to eighteen inches tall, each bearing a
single, handsome, bright yellow flower, from one to two inches across,
which is succeeded by a beautiful silvery seed puff. This plant has
many common names, such as Blow-ball, Monk's-head, Lion's-tooth, etc.
[Illustration: Sow Thistle--Sonchus oleraceus.