LEO 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



LEO 



31 



2. Leontice Leontopetalum ; Common Lion's Leaf. Leaves 

 decompound; common petiole trifid. For further particu- 

 lars, propagation, and culture, see the preceding species. 

 Native of the Levant, Tuscany, and Apulia. 



3. Leontice Thalictroides ; Columbine-leaved Lion's Leaf. 

 Stem-leaf triternate; floral-leaf biternate; stem simple. 

 Native of North America. See the first species. 



4. Leontice Triphylla ; Three-leaved Lion's Leaf. Leaves 

 radical, ternate, bluntly toothed ; stalk radical, simple ; 

 flowers spiked. Perennial. Gathered by Mr. Menzies on 

 the West coast of N. America. 



Leontodon; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia jEqualis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common 

 imbricate, oblong; scales, interior linear, parallel, equal; 

 exterior, fewer, often reflex at the base. Corolla : compound 

 imbricate, uniform ; corollets hermaphrodite, numerous, 

 equal; proper one-petalled, strap-shaped, linear, truncated, 

 five-toothed. Stamina: filamenta five, capillary, very short; 

 antherae cylindric, tubular. Pistil : germen subovate ; style 

 filiform, length of the corollet; stigmas two, revolute. Peri- 

 carp: none. Calix: oblong, straight, at length reflex. 

 Seeds : solitary, oblong, rough ; down capillary, foot-stalked. 

 Receptacle: naked, dotted. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Calix: imbricate, with loosish scales. Down: capillary. 

 Receptacle: naked, dotted. Most of the species that have 

 been ranged by Linneus under this genus,have been separated 

 by subsequent authors, on account of a difference in the calix, 

 down, and receptacle. Perhaps none of the species ought 

 to have remained under this genus except the first. The 

 following are the generic characters of the three genera into 

 which this has tTeen divided. 1. APARGIA. Calix: subim- 

 bricate, with linear, parallel, unequal scales. Down plu- 

 mose, subsessile. Receptacle, naked, subvillose. 2. HEDYP- 

 NOIS. Calix : calicled, with short scales. Down, none to the 

 outer seeds ; the inner have five almost erect awned chaffs. 

 Receptacle, naked. 3. LEONTODON. Calix, imbricate 

 with loosish scales. Down, capillary. Receptacle, naked, 

 dotted. The species are, 



1 . Leontodon Taraxacum ; Common Dandelion. Lower 

 calicine scales reflex ; leaves runcinate, toothletted, even. 

 Root perennial, tapering, milky, pale brown. In a very dry 

 situation, the leaves vary from pinnatifid or deeply runcinate 

 to nearly entire ; in a very moist one, generally smooth, but 

 sometimes a little rough. A single large yellow flower is sup- 

 ported on a hollow milky scape, covered with a kind of down 

 towards, the top. The flowers expand about five or six in 

 the morning, and close early in the afternoon. Early in the 

 spring, while the leaves are hardly unfolded, they are not an 

 unpleasant ingredient in salads, and are said to be a powerful 

 antiscorbutic. The French eat the roots, and the leaves 

 blanched, with bread and butter. At Gottingen the roots 

 are roasted and substituted for coffee by the poor, who find 

 that an infusion prepared in this way can hardly be distin- 

 guished from that of the coffee-berry. A strong decoction is 

 found serviceable in the stone and gravel ; whence it has, on 

 account of its powerful diuretic enacts, obtained the vulgar 

 name of Piss-a-bed among most European nations, as well as 

 the English. The expressed juice has been given to the quan- 

 tity of four ounces, three or four times a day; and Boerhaave 

 had a great opinion of the utility of this and other milky 

 plants in visceral obstructions. When a swarm of locusts had 

 destroyed the harvest in the island of Minorca, many of the 

 inhabitants subsisted upon this plant. Goats eat it; swine 

 devour it greedily; sheep and cattle are not fond of it; horses 

 refuse it; but small birds are fond of the seeds. Our com- 

 mon name is well known to be a corruption of the French 

 VOL. ii. 68. 



Dent de Lion, from the toothing of the leaves. It is a com- 

 mon weed in gardens, flowers from April to September, and 

 is common all over Europe, in meadows, on walls, dry banks, 

 &c. Leontodon Palustris is probably a mere variety. 



2. Leontodon Bulbosum ; Bulbous Dandelion. Leaves 

 oblong-ovate, somewhat toothed, smooth ; calix even ; scape 

 rough-haired at top, Root tuberous. Native of Montpellier 

 in the south of France, and of Italy. 



3. Leontodon Aureuni; Golden Dandelion. Leaves run- 

 cinate ; stem one-leafed ; calix hispid. Root perennial, end- 

 bitten, the thickness of a reed or of the human finger, with 

 long white fibres, white on the inside, bnt usually blackish 

 without; scape, one or two, round, striated, upright, smooth 

 below, but hispid towards the top, with black hairs, and 

 having a small scale or two at different heights ; it is from 

 three to ten inches high, and has one flower at the top ; 

 sometimes there is a branch with a second flower. The 

 flower is elegant, each floret being yellow on the inside, but 

 saffron-coloured on the outside, both colours turning deeper. 

 Native of Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. 



4. Leontodon Muricatum ; Prickly Dandelion. Leaves 

 runcinate, rugged ; calices muricated, imbricate, loose, some- 

 what reclining. Root perennial, fusiform, almost simple; 

 stems diffused, a foot and half high, branched, round, flexu- 

 ose, somewhat striated, muricated, milky, red ; flowers yel- 

 low, two inches in diameter. The whole plant is rugged and 

 milky. Native of the coast of the Mediterranean, near Tunis 

 and Algiers. 



Leonurus; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Gymno- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, tubular, cylindric-cornered, pentagonal, five-toothed, 

 permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, ringent; tube narrow; 

 border gaping; mouth long; upper lip longest, semicylindric, 

 concave, gibbose, rounded, obtuse at the tip, entire, villose ; 

 lower lip reflex, three-parted; divisions lanceolate, about 

 equal. Stamina : filamenta four, covered beneath the upper 

 lip, of which two are shorter ; antherae oblong, compressed, 

 bifid in the middle, incumbent, sprinkled with very small 

 elevated, globose, glossy, solid points. Pistil: germinafour; 

 style filiform, of the length and situation of the stamina ; 

 stigma bifid, acute. Pericarp: none; calix unchanged, con- 

 taining the seeds, which are shorter than it. Seeds : four, 

 oblong, convex on one side, cornered on the other. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Anthera: having shining clots sprinkled 

 over them. The species are, 



1. Leonurus Cardiaca; Common Motherwort. Stem-leaves 

 lanceolate, trifid. The root seems to be perennial, though 

 most authors mark it as biennial ; stem upright, hard, from 

 two to three feet high ; leaves somewhat like those of the 

 Gooseberry ; whorls of flowers numerous ; corolla whitish on 

 the outside, elegantly stained with paler and darker purple 

 within. The herb is bitter and tonic, with no very pleasant, 

 though pungent smell. The whole plant may be used dried, 

 but the tops are best fresh cut. It is a good medicine in 

 hysteric disorders, and promotes the menstrual discharges; 

 it is likewise an excellent thing for palpitations of the heart, 

 when they arise from hysteric causes. The best way of giving 

 it is in form of a conserve, made from the young tops ; or 

 it may be given in decoctions, or a strong infusion, but is 

 very unpleasant to take that way. It cleanses the breast from 

 tough phlegm, kills worms in the stomach and intestines, and 

 helps in the cramp and other convulsive disorders. The 

 Germans call this plant, herzgespaum or herzkraut ; the 

 Danes, hiertespan; the Swedes, bonassla; the French, 

 agripawne, cardiaque, la cordiale ; the Italians, Spaniards, 

 and Portuguese, ayripalma and cardiaca. Native of many 



