It is not only against the aggressions of neighboring plants, however, that our dandelion needs to be prepared. It is at least equally important for its welfare that it have some means of protection against herbivorous animals--not only such as might eat its leaves, but also the more stealthy ones that live upon the food which plants store underground. All such foes it thwarts by a means as simple as it is efficient. Every part of the plant contains a milky juice which is intensely bitter, and a first taste is quite enough to convince the most stupid animal that raw dandelion is not good eating, and most animals know enough to let it severely alone. Curiously enough, however, in this, as in many other cases, it happens that what in nature acts to deter animals from eating the plant, with man offers the chief attraction, for it is this very bitter principle (_taraxacin_) which gives to dandelion greens their peculiar flavor, and affords the essential element in the extract which physicians prescribe. The store of food, referred to above, which the dandelion accumulates in its root, not infrequently enables it to pass, almost unharmed, through dangers that with less provident plants would surely prove fatal. For example, it must often happen that from drought or from being trampled upon by animals, the leaves become wholly or in part destroyed. Now, if there were no reserve store of food, the plant would have no chance of rallying; but as it is, this food supplies the material for new growth, and upon the return of favorable conditions, fresh leaves are developed, and the plant lives on as before. Primarily, of course, the purpose of this storage of food is to enable the plant to live on from year to year, resting in the winter, and in the spring beginning work again with a good start. In comparing the higher with the lower plants, the superiority of the former is most beautifully shown in the better provision which is made for the welfare of offspring; and in this regard our dandelion stands among the highest. Before we can understand the ways in which our little plant performs this part of its life work, we must briefly consider the structure of the blossom. [Illustration: FIG. 2.]