COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Rootstock. — Horizontal, creeping, sending up simple 

 scaly scapes in early spring, each bearing a single flower- 

 head. 



Leaves. — Rounded, heart-shaped, angled, or toothed, 

 woolly when young. 



Flower-heads. — Radiate-composite, containing both ray 

 and disk florets; ray-florets in several rows, narrow, pistil- 

 late, fertile; disk-florets ster- 

 ile; involucre nearly simple; 

 receptacle flat; akenes cylin- 

 drical ; pappus abundant, soft, 

 and hair-like. 



Coltsfoot is a plant that 

 came to us from Europe and 

 has not wandered very far 

 from the Atlantic seaboard. 

 New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania are given as its 

 western limit. There is 

 nothing attractive about 

 the plant; the flower-head 

 is borne on erect, leafless 

 stems and has been described as a small Dandelion with 

 its heart plucked out. However, this is the same Colts- 

 foot that once was gathered and preserved in company 

 with Boneset, Catnip, and Hoarhound as part of the 

 domestic materia medica, and had at one time a great 

 reputation as a remedy for coughs and colds. Its 

 Latin name is an old one used by Pliny, and this points 

 to a similar use of the plant in ancient times. 



The flower-head is paler yellow than that of the Dande- 

 lion and is set in a deep, leafy, thimble-shaped green cup. 

 The ray-florets are fringe-like. The head usually closes 

 at noon. The flowers precede the leaves by some days. 



222 



Coltsfoot. Tussildgo fdrfara 



