132 COMPOSITE 



* Although the milkiness of the juice increases till the very close of the time 

 of flowering, viz. in the wild Lettuce, till the month of October in this climate, 

 the value of the ladwarmm is deteriorated after the middle of the period of 

 inflorescence ; for subsequently, while the juice becomes thicker, a material 

 decrease takes place in the proportion of bitter extract contained in it.' " 



2. Prickly Lettuce {L. scaridla). — Leaves upright, arrow-shaped at the 

 base, and clasping, deeply cut ; panicle leafy ; beak as long as the pale fruit ; 

 root perennial. This species is rarely found in this country, but it grows on 

 dry banks in some parts of Cambridgeshire and other counties. Its stem is 

 leafy, from two to five feet high, bearing yellow flower-heads, with numerous 

 heart-shaped bracts, in July and August. The plant is of paler colour than the 

 last species, and the milky juice with which it abounds is of a somewhat less 

 acrid nature. Many botanists believe that our garden Lettuce (L. safiva) is but 

 an ameliorated form of this species, while other writers think that the Acrid 

 Lettuce (L. virdsa) is the origin of our garden Lettuces. These plants have been 

 now so long under culture that it is impossible to trace whence they were 

 derived ; and it is remarkable that the Lettuce can be grown to as great per- 

 fection in a warm as in a temperate climate, provided the soil is rich and well 

 supplied with water. Hence the Lettuces of Paris and Rome are as good as 

 ours, and the Hindoo dines from as sweet and large a vegetable as that which 

 supplies our salad. One of the cultivated Lettuces doubtless was introduced 

 from the Greek islands, as it retains its old name of Cos lethice. 



The wild Prickly Lettuce, though a rare English plant, is plentiful in many 



parts of Europe. It is found on the hilly districts of Greece, and is probably 



the species referred to by Dioscorides. The ancients were well aware of the 



narcotic principles of this genus ; for the Romans used the Lettuce both for 



salads and medicine, and the old poets prescribed a bed of Lettuce for the 



sleepless. Pliny, as translated by Dr. Holland, says : " Yet is there another 



distincte kinde of the black Lettuce, which for the plentie that it yieldeth of 



a milkie white juice, procuring drowsinesse, is termed meconis ; although all 



of them are thought to cause sleepe. In old times, our ancestors knew no 



other lettuce in Italy but this alone, and therefore it took the name of the 



Latins, Ladika" Anyone who observes his own sensations after eating 



plentifull}^ of a lettuce salad will find that it disposes him to sleep if night is 



advancing ; while, if taken at a part of the day when we are unaccustomed to 



sleep, it soothes and calms the mind, and allays nervous iri^itability. As 



Pope says, 



"If your wish be rest, 

 Lettuce and cowslip wine, probatum est." 



"When we indulge freely, indeed, in a lettuce salad, we might be told that we 

 were incipient opium-eaters ; but, happily, we are not likely at one meal to 

 take so large a portion of the lactucarium as would affect the brain to anything 

 like intoxication. 



Sir John Lubbock states that, when growing in sunny situations, the 

 leaves of this species have a tendency to point north and south. 



The Lettuce appears to have been planted in our garden early, but it was 

 long before its growth became frequent. Turner mentions it in 1652 as a 

 vegetable which was well known ; but in the account of the Privy Purse 



