COMPOUND FLOWERS 131 



above ; heads in panicles ; beak as long as the black fruit ; root biennial. On 

 some chalky soils this Lettuce may be seen putting forth its yellow heads 

 from May to August. They are in loose panicles, and are very small in 

 comparison with the large and numerous leaves. The stem is prickly, from 

 two to four feet high, branched at the upper part, and having a few leaves 

 scattered over it. The leaves about the root are oblong, or inversely egg- 

 shaped, and very numerous. This Lettuce can hardly be called a common 

 plant in England, and in Scotland it is very rare. It is not rendered 

 attractive by any odour, grace, or beauty, and would by any but a botanist 

 be passed by as an uninteresting weed. On some chalk cliffs it attains a 

 gigantic size, as on those around Lydden Spout, near Do^■er. It grows there 

 in such luxuriance as to give a peculiar feature to those steep precipices, 

 being sometimes eight feet high. 



This Lettuce is found throughout Europe on hedges, walls, and field- 

 borders, and is also cultivated to a large extent for the milky juice which it 

 yields, which, when dried, has the name of Lacfucarium, and which, r.s Gerarde 

 says, " hath a very strong and grievous smell of opium." All our wild 

 Lettuces, as well as the garden species, possess this bitter and narcotic juice 

 in greater or less degree, and it has when dried a considerable resemblance to 

 opium. If we make an incision in the stem either of this weed or of the 

 garden Lettuce, just when it is beginning to flower, a milky juice exudes, 

 which gradually becomes brown, and hardens into this substance. It may l)e 

 used in cases in which the poppy is inadmissible ; and the Laduca virdsa has 

 been largely grown at Brechin, in Forfar, as well as at some other places, for 

 the pharmaceutical preparation. It is very important to select a soil well 

 suited to the growth of this Lettuce. At Brechin the plants were reared in a 

 valley opening to the south, where they sent up lai'ge and juicy stems. The 

 milky juice which exudes on incision is suffered to harden in the sun until it 

 becomes a thin cake, and when this is removed another incision is made in 

 the stem, and often, when the plant is luxuriant, a third incision may safely 

 be ventured on. Our climate is less favourable than some others for the 

 growth of the plant, which, nevertheless, in many cases proves very pro- 

 ductive. 



This narcotic juice may be obtained, also, from other species of the Lettuce, 

 and the garden Lettuce {Laduca saiiva) is the plant recognised by the London 

 Pharmacopoeia for supplying the substance. Dr. Christison remarks : "The 

 London College, however, and many cultivators are wrong in restricting 

 themselves to the garden Lettuce for the preparation of laducarium. From 

 information communicated to me several years ago by Mr. Duncan, chemist 

 and druggist, of Edinburgh, who has often made lactucarium on a large scale, 

 it appears that the Laduca virosa yields a much larger quantity, and that the 

 produce is of a superior quality. Nor is there an}^ reason for dreading the 

 narcotic properties of the wild Lettuce, the scientific name of which has given 

 rise to an exaggerated notion of its activity. The results obtained by 

 Mr. Duncan have since been confirmed by those of Schultz, in Germany, 

 who found that a single plant of the garden Lettuce yields only seventeen 

 grains of laducarium on an average, while a plant of wild Lettuce yields no 

 less than fifty-six grains. Mr. Duncan has made this observation also : 



17—2 



