I. AC 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



LAC 



the winter, without which covering the plants would often 

 be destroyed ; but letting them have as much air as possible 

 in mild weather. In the spring, these plants should be 

 planted out into a rich light soil, allowing them at least six- 

 teen inches' distance each way ; for if they are planted too 

 close, they are very subject to grow tall, but seldom cabbage 

 well. From the crop, if they succeed well, it will be pro- 

 per to save your seeds ; though you should also save from 

 that crop sown on the hot-bed in the spring, because some- 

 times it happens, that the first may fail by a wet season, 

 when the plants are full in flower, and the second crop may 

 succeed, by having a more favourable season afterwards. 

 The most valuable of all the sorts of Lettuce in England, are 

 the Egyptian Green Cos, the Versailles or White Cos, and 

 the Cilicia ; though some people are very fond of the Royal 

 and Imperial Lettuces, which seldom sell so well, or are so 

 much esteemed, as the other; the White Cos obtained the 

 preference, until the Egyptian Green Cos was introduced, 

 which is so much sweeter and tenderer than the White Cos, 

 that all good judges pronounce it the best sort of Lettuce 

 yet known ; it will endure the cold of our ordinary winters 

 as well as the White Cos; but at the season of its cabbaging, 

 if there happen to be much wet, it is very subject to rot. 

 The Brown, Dutch, and Green Capuchin Lettuces, are very 

 hardy, and may be sown at the same season as was directed 

 for the Common Cabbage Lettuce, and are very proper to 

 plant under a wall or hedge, to stand the winter, where 

 many times these will abide when most of the other sorts 

 are destfoyed, and therefore they will prove very acceptable 

 at a time when few other sorts are to be had : they will also 

 endure more heat and drought than most other sorts of 

 Lettuce, which renders them very proper for late sowing ; 

 for it often happens, in very hot weather, that the other 

 sorts of Lettuce will run up to seed in a few days after they 

 are cabbaged, whereas these will abide nearly a fortnight 

 in good order, especially if care be taken to cut the for- 

 wardest first, leaving those that are not so hard cabbaged 

 to the last. If some plants of these two last sorts are planted 

 under frames, on a moderate hot-bed in October, they will 

 be fit for use in April, which will prove acceptable to those 

 who are lovers of Lettuce; and being covered by glasses, will 

 render them tender. In saving these seeds, the same care 

 should be taken to preserve only such as are very large and 

 well cabbaged, otherwise the seeds will degenerate, and be 

 good for little. The Red Capuchin, Roman, and Prince's 

 Lettuces, are pretty varieties, and cabbage very early, for 

 which reason a few of them may be preserved, as may also 

 some of the Aleppo, for the beauty of its spotted leaves ; 

 though very few people care for any of these sorts at table, 

 when the other more valuable ones are to be obtained ; 

 but the former do very well in a scarcity of the latter, and 

 are very proper for soups. The seeds of these must also 

 be saved from such as cabbage best, otherwise they will 

 degenerate, and be good for little. In saving seeds of all 

 these sorts of Lettuce, never suffer two sorts to stand near 

 each other, for, by their farina mixing, they will both 

 vary from their original, and partake of each other ; and 

 there should be a stake fixed down by the side of each, to 

 which the stem should be fastened, to prevent their being 

 broken, or blown out of the ground by wind, to which the 

 Cilicia, Cos, and the other large-growing Lettuces, are very 

 subject when they are in flower. Observe also to cut such 

 branches of the large-growing Lettuce as ripen first, and 

 not wait to have the seed of the whole plant ripe together, 

 which never happens ; but, on the contrary, some branches 

 will be ripe a fortnight or three weeks before others ; and 



when you cut them, they must be spread upon a coarse 

 cloth in a dry place, that the seeds may dry, after which 

 you should beat them out, and dry them again, and then 

 preserve them for use, taking care to hang them up where 

 mice and other vermin cannot come at them, for if they do 

 they will soon eat them up. The wild sorts are easily raised 

 from seed : Perennial Lettuce spreads at the root ; it is in- 

 creased by suckers. 



4. Lactuca Scariola; Prickly Lettuce. Leaves vertical, 

 prickly on the keel. Root biennial, and, like the rest of the 

 plant, very full of milky juice; stem erect, two or three 

 feet high, round, prickly, leafy, branched at the top into a 

 sort of panicle, consisting of numerous small pale yellow 

 flowers ; seeds ovate, of a ferruginous blackish colour. 

 Native of the southern parts of Europe ; found wild with us 

 on the borders of fields in the Isle of Ely. 



5. Lactuca Virosa ; Strong-scented Lettuce. Leaves hori- 

 zontal, prickly on the keel, and toothed. Root biennial ; 

 stem from two to four feet high, prickly below; flowers 

 numerous, yellow, sessile, or on short peduncles, with a small 

 leaf at the base of each, and others still smaller cm them. 

 Native of the south of Europe, in hedges, on ditch-banks, 

 and borders of fields. In England, at the World's End near 

 Stepney, and on the banks of the Thames between Blackwall 

 and Woolwich; found also at Burwell Pit, in Cambridge- 

 shire ; on old walls near Bungay in Suffolk ; in Marston 

 Lane, Oxfordshire ; and in a stone quarry at Thorp Arch, in 

 Yorkshire. This plant abounds with a milky juice, the 

 opiate power of which is of very considerable strength, 

 insomuch that it may occasionally be used in the manner 

 of common opium. It may be collected by suffering the 

 juice to drain from the wounded parts of the plant; and 

 then, by drying in the manner of opium, it may be made 

 into pills. Sir John Hill, in his British, Herbal, recommends 

 this to be practised in April and May. When dried, it dis- 

 solves freely in wine, and forms an excellent anodyne ; the 

 dose of which, a tea-spoonful in a glass of water answers 

 all the purposes of laudanum. Dr. Collins relates twenty- 

 foul- cases of dropsy, out of which twenty-three were cured 

 by taking the extract, in doses from eighteen grains to three 

 drachms in twenty-four hours ; it commonly proves laxative, 

 promotes virine and gentle sweats, and removes thirst : it 

 must be prepared when the plant is in flower. A syrup, 

 made from a strong infusion of the plant, is also an excellent 

 anodyne medicine ; it eases the most violent pains of the 

 colic and other disorders, and gently disposes the patient to 

 sleep, producing all the good effects of a gentle opiate. 



6. Lactuca Saligna; Least Lettuce. Leaves hastate- 

 linear, sessile, prickly on the keel. Flowers nearly sessile, 

 small, yellow. Native of France, Saxony, Silesia, Switzer- 

 land, Austria, Carniola, Piedmont, and England, on the 

 banks of ditches, and in pastures on a chalky soil. 



7. Lactuca Tuberosa; Tuberous-rooted Lettuce. Leaves 

 spinulous-toothed; stem almost simple; root tuberous, mani- 

 fold. The whole plant, and even the calix, abounds with a 

 white milk, which turns to an orange-colour when exposed to 

 the air; corollas pale blue, purple; flowers few. 



8. Lactuca Canadensis ; Canadian Lettuce. Leaves lan- 

 ceolate-ensiform, embracing, toothed, unarmed. Native of 

 Canada. 



9. Lactuca Indica; Indian Lettuce. Leaves lanceolate, 

 ensiform, sessile, unequally toothed. Native of the East 

 Indies ; and observed in Java. 



10. Lactuca Perennis ; Perennial Lettuce. Leaves linear, 

 tooth-pinnate; segments toothed upwards. Root perennial, 

 composed of many long fleshy fibres, which abound with a 



