316 COMPOSIT Ai. 
Sina, which he describes as useful in dropsy and obstructions 
of the liver. The same plant is noticed by other Arabian and 
Persian writers, all of whom describe it as the wild endive, and 
some of whom add that it has bluish flowers. 
The Greeks and Romans speak of several varieties of endive, 
but there is nothing in their descriptions to lead us to suppose 
that they were acquainted with our Taraxacum. Fuchsius 
(1542) figured T. officinale (Ic. 391, f.), and named it 
Hedypnois, a name given by Pliny (20, 31) to one of his kinds 
of wild endive. Tragus (1552) figured it under the name of 
Hieracium majus. Matthiolus (1583) called it Dens leonts, and 
Linneus (1762) Leontodon Taraxacum, on the supposition, 
apparently, that it was the Tarkhashkin of Ibn Sina. At the 
close of the last century dandelion began to be much used as a 
remedy for chronic obstructions of the liver and bowels, and 
as a diuretic in calculous affections. From experiments made 
by Ruthorford and Vignal, it appears that taraxacum is but a 
feeble hepatic stimulant, but it has powerful diuretic proper- 
ties. Taraxacum is very popular in India in cases of hepatic 
congestion due to, or associated with, atonic dyspepsia and 
constipation ; indeed, it has become quite a domestic remedy 
in this country. It is cultivated as an annual crop at Saharanpur ~ 
for the use of the Government sanitary establishments. The 
_ Madras Medical Stores are supplied with the root from the 
Nilgiris. 
Description.— The perennial root is from 6 to 12 or 16 
inches long, nearly cylindrical, } to 1 inch thick, crowned with 
several short thickish heads above and furnished with few 
branches below. Fresh, it is light yellowish-brown and fleshy ; 
when dry, dark brown or blackish-brown, much wrinkled 
longitudinally; internally, it is white with a yellowish centre. 
It is inodorous and has a bitter taste. It is hygroscopic, and 
in damp weather rather flexible, but when dry breaks with a - 
short fracture, showing the pale yellow porous woodsurrounded 
by a dark brown cambium-line and a thick white bark, with 
concentric circles of milk-vessels of a brownish colour, and : 
