COMPOUND FLOWERS 173 



hieadows, that Mr. Curtis says, a piece of this rootstock, only two inches 

 long, and the thickness of his little finger, was dug up, after being planted 

 eighteen months, when it appeared that many shoots had extended to the 

 length of six feet, and jjcnetrated two feet in depth, while the whole mass 

 weighed eight pounds. The rootstock, which is white, with a thick black skin, 

 abounds in a resinous matter, and has a strong resinous odour, and a bitter 

 and acrid flavour. It was formerly used as a medicine in fevers, and was 

 believed to be so efficacious in the cure of the plague, that one of the old 

 names of the plant was Pestilence- wort. " It is under the dominion of the 

 sun," says an old writer, "and, therefore, a great strengthener of the heart 

 and cheerer of the vital spirits." He adds: "It were well if gentlewomen 

 would keepe this roote preserved, to help their poore neighbours. It is fit 

 the rich should help the poore, for the poore cannot help themselves." The 

 art of pi'cparing and preserving medical herbs seems to have been a common 

 accomplishment of the ladies of the olden times, and it is pleasant to think 

 of our female ancestors as employed in making the old unguents and decoc- 

 tions derived from plants, and dispensing them among the sufferers ; for we 

 know well that these acts would tend to promote kindly and charitable 

 feeling, and that the gift of the medicine would in all probability be accom- 

 panied by some word of sympathy, which might heal the wounded spirit, as 

 surely as the herbal medicament should help the bodily ailment. 



The stamens and pistils of the Butter-bur usually occur in the flowers of 

 separate plants, and the plant bearing the fertile flowers is generally smaller, 

 and has a less dense spike of blossoms, than the stout sturdy barren flower. 

 The corollas are of pale flesh colour ; and they expand during April and 

 May, before the leaves, which begin to unfold just as the feathery down of 

 the seeds is clustering on the flower-stalk, or shortly after that has been 

 wafted away by the winds. The stalk has, at the time of flowering, swelling 

 leaf-stalks, wdiich are either leafless or have a small leaf-like piece. The 

 Swedes place this plant near their beehives, because of its early flowering ; 

 but it has the disadvantage of overpowering all herbaceous plants near it. 

 The species so frequent in our gardens and shrubberies, and often called 

 Spring Coltsfoots, are the Fetasites dlba and P. frdgmns of the botanist. 

 Their fragrant blooms quite scent the vernal air ; but the plant has the same 

 tendency as the wild species to extend by its creeping roots over a large 

 space of ground. The odour, which is so delicious in the open air, is too" 

 powerful for a room ; and the masses of leaves have a good appearance in 

 the shrubbery, but so cover the ground as to exclude all lesser plants. 

 P.fragrans, commonly known as Winter Heliotrope, is thoroughly naturalized 

 in many parts of South Cornwall, where extensive patches may be seen grow- 

 ing along green road-sides, as well as up and over the high hedge-banks. It 

 has also obtained a permanent footing beside the Thames between Kew and 

 Eichmond. 



2. The Daisy Group (Badiatce). 



35. Coltsfoot {Tussildgo). 



Coltsfoot {T. fdrfara). — Stalk single-flowered, with scales crowded upon 

 it ; leaves angular, heart-shaped, toothed, white and cottony beneath ; 



