NAT. ORDER. 



CompositcB. 



TUSSILAGO FARFARA. COMMON COLTS-FOOT. 



Cla&s XIX. Syngenesia. Order II. Superflua. 



Gen. Char. Receptacle, naked. Paptis, simple. Calyx, scales equal, 

 as Ions as the disk, somewhat membranaceous. 



Spe. Char. Scape, one flowered, imbricate. Leaves, subcordate, 

 angular and toothed. 



The root is long, round, tapering, creeping, and sends off many 

 small short fibres ; the stalks are furrowed, downy, simple, six or 

 eight inches high, beset with several scaly leaves, of a brownish 

 pink color, and closely embracing the stem ; the leaves are obtusely 

 heart-shaped, angular, irregularly indented, above of a bright, green 

 color, beneath white, downy, and stand upon long roundish radical 

 footstalks ; the Jlowcrs are compound, large and yellow ; the Jlorcts 

 in the disc are hermaphrodite, tubidar, the limb is cut into five acute 

 segments, which curl outwardly ; the anthers, by uniting, form a 

 tube, but their apices are separate and pointed; the germen is short; 

 the style is filiform and longer than the anthers ; the stigma is round ; 

 the jllorets at the circumference are female, tubular at their bases, 

 and the limb is long and linear ; the germen is oblong ; the stignia 

 bifid ; the seed is oblong, and of a pale brown color, crowned with 

 simple down ; the calyx is cyhndrical ; the Icajlets are oblong, 

 pointed, and alternately narrower. It is found most common in 

 moist, clayey places, and the flowers appear sometimes before the 

 leaves, which usually takes place in March and April. 



Medical Properties and Uses. — The sensible qualities of colts- 

 ' foot at the present time, arc not considered as being of much im- 

 portance in the practice of medicine ; it has a rough mucilaginous 



