DANDELION: A genus of the polygamia æqualis order, belonging to the syngenesia clas of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 49th order, Compositæ. The receptacle is naked; the calyx imbricated, with the scales somewhat loose; the pappus feathery. There are nine species, of which the only remarkable one is the Taraxacum, or common dandelion, found on the road sides, in pastures, and on the banks of ditches. Early in the spring, the leaves whilst yet white and hardly unfolded are an excellent ingredient in salads. The French eat the roots and tender leaves with bread and butter. Children that eat it in the evening experience its diuretic effects in the night, which is the reason that other European nations as well as ourselves vulgarly call it pis-a-bed. When a swarm of locusts had destroyed the harvest in the island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted upon this plant. The expressed juice has been given to the quantity of four ounces three or four times a day; and Boerhaave had a great opinion of the utility of this and other lactescient plants in visceral obstructions. Goats eat it; swine devour it greedily; sheep and cows are not fond of it, and horses refuse it. Small birds are fond of the seeds.