I02 F[.0\VF,RS OF r.AKFS, RIVFRS, ETC. 



(a cow hoof), Moots, }Iorse-hove, ix-icr lo the same resemblance be- 

 tween the leaf outline and an unj^ulate hoof. 



On Ivaster Day in Havaria the peasants made garlands of it and 

 threw them into the \\w. It has been considered a demulcent and 

 pectoral, ihc leaves being mucilaginotis. The plant has long been 

 used for coughs. In Chaucer's day it was used in all stomachic com- 

 plaints, for broken bones and the drye cohw (cough). The leaves are 

 held to be expectorant. The leaves have been used since the days of 

 Dioscoricles to smoke through a reed to remove the mucus in the chest 

 for catarrh, asthma, phthisis, but it is little: used to-day. 1 he coiii_)ii ot 

 the leaves vvra[)ped in rag dipped in saltpetre has been employed as 

 tinder. F"or coughs also a tea or syrup was made. The root dried 

 and burnt has Ijcen used to keep away gnats. 



When the llorets have done blooming, and the achcnes with i)aj)pus 

 enclosed in the involucre are moist, the heads hang down, as at night, 

 but in the day and when it is dry they become light, and the scape is 

 again erect and the pappus expanded as in the Dandelion. 



EssKNTi.\L Specific Cil\r.'\cter,s: — 



163. V'/tss/An^v Farfara, L. — Soboliferous, leaves large, cordate, 

 angular, with dark teeth, cottony beneath, leaves appearing after 

 the Howerheads, which are on scapc;s with scales, disk florets tubular, 

 ray florets ligulate, drooping before and after tlowering. 



Butterbur (Petasites officinalis, Moench) 



Unlike its near neighbour Coltsfoot, Butterbur is not tound in early 

 deposits. It is found in the North Temperate Zone to-day in Europe, 

 .North .Africa, X. and \V. Asia. It is found in every ])art also of 

 Great Britain except the Isle of Wight, Glamorgan. West Sutherland, 

 as far north as the Shetlands; but it is local, and ascemls to 1000 ft. 

 in Northumberland: ami in Irehuul it is also native. 



l)Utterbur is a paludal species, which grows in very similar places to 

 Coltsfoot. It, however, frequents the near neighbourhood of water 

 more consistently than the latter, and is found on the borders of rivers, 

 streams, and lakes, forming dense brakes with its huge rhubarb-like 

 leaves. 



Like Coltsfoot the Ikitterbur is soboliferous, with creeping under- 

 ground stems. The stems are woolly scapes. The leaves' are tlat, 

 large, kidney-shaped or heart-shaped, toothed along the margin, 



' rctfcctly ad.ipted U> a liahiuit wlitre muisluie is almndaiu. water copiously Mippliod, and llie sliade 

 considerable. 



