396 PHYSIOLOGY AT THE FARM. 



ance, so as to afford a supply of fresh vegetable in Lent. It 

 was called lamb's-lettuce apparently because it flowers in the 

 lambing season. It is only when young that its flavour is 

 tolerable to most people. 



Composite, Composite order. Sub-orders: 1. Cichoracece, 

 Chicory or Lettuce order. Cichorium intybus, chicory or wild 

 succory, is the plant the roots of which are so much employed 

 as a substitute for coffee. It is a deep-rooting perennial. It 

 flowers in July. It grows in rich soils, and yields a great bulk, 

 both of root and stem foliage, of which cattle are exceedingly 

 fond. It is much grown in England for the sake of the roots. 



Cichorium endivia is the endive, or garden succory, the 

 leaves of which when etiolated are used in salads. 



Lactuca saliva is the garden lettuce. 



Leontodon taraxacum, common dandelion. It has been 

 recommended as a winter salad, blanched like endive ; but it 

 possesses too much bitter principle to render it fit for table 

 under any management. The tender leaves in spring, used in 

 compound salads, are equal to those of endive or succory. 

 The roots, which are fusiforum, abound in a milky juice, and 

 are eaten raw as a salad by the French, and boiled by the Ger- 

 mans like salsify and scorzonera. Dried and ground to pow- 

 der, they afford a substitute for coffee, in all respects equal to 

 that of chicory roots. Swine are fond of it, and goats will 

 eat it ; but sheep and cows dislike it, and by horses it is re- 

 fused.* 



Scorzonera Hispanica, garden scorzonera or viper's grass. 

 The root is carrot-shaped, about the thickness of one's finger, 

 tapering gradually to a fine point, and thus it bears some re- 

 semblance to the body of a viper, against the bite of which the 

 plant has a reputation in Spain. The outer rind being scraped 

 off, the root is steeped in water, in order to abstract a part of 



* London, ' Encyclopaedia of Plants,' p. 671. 



