196 FAMILY HERBAL. 



same purpose. It is a good method to put those 

 into who require a gentle opiate, and will not take 

 medicines. 



Wild Lettuce. Lacluca sylvestris major. 



A common plant in our hedges, and having 

 some resemblance to the garden letiice in its flowers, 

 though not in its manner of growth. It is six or 

 seven feet high. The stalk is thick, round, very 

 upright, branched, and of a pale yellowish green 

 colour. The leaves at the bottom are very large, 

 a foot long and five inches broad, and of a pale 

 green colour ; those higher up the stalks are smaller, 

 they are deeply indented at the edges, and either 

 these, the stalk, or any other part of the plant being 

 wounded, there flows out a milky juice, which has 

 the smell of opium, and its hot bitter taste: the 

 branches are very numerous, and the flowers arc 

 also very numerous, but they are small and of a pale 

 yellow. 



This is a plant not introduced into the common 

 practice, but very worth) of that notice. I have 

 known it used in private families, with great suc- 

 cess. A syrup made from a strong infusion of it, 

 is an excellent anodyne ; it eases the most violent 

 p;iin in colics, and other disorders, and gently dis- 

 poses the person to sleep. It has the good cfieci 

 of a gentle opiate, and none of the bad ones of thai 

 violent medicine. 



White Lily. Lilt u in uHmm. 



A tall, fragrant, ;\m\ beautiful garden piant. 

 Il grows four or five feet high ; the stalk is round, 

 jrrern, thick, firm, and very upright ; a u'ieat many 

 Jiaves surround it at the bottom, and a great many 



