TUS 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



TUS 



721 



pastures ; flowering in May. It has been observed near 

 Midhurst, in Sussex ; on Switham bottom near Croydon, in 

 Surry; near Bury, in Suffolk; in several parts of Cambridge- 

 shire ; at Rewley Abbey, in Oxfordshire ; upon the ruins of 

 Old Sarurn; upon St. Vincent's rocks, near Bristol; at Wick 

 Cliffs; at Baydales and Darling; about Settle ; and in the 

 King's Park, at Edinburgh. 



5. Turritis Patula; Spreading Tower-Mustard. All the 

 leaves hispid : stem-leaves embracing, toothed at the end ; 

 branches spreading; root annual. It differs from the pre- 

 ceding, in being of a smaller stature, having a more flexuose 

 stem, with spreading, instead of upright stiff branches. Na- 

 tive of Switzerland and Hungary, on open hills. 



6. Turritis Pubescens ; Downy Tower-Mustard. All the 

 leaves hispid : stem-leaves sessile, bluntly toothed at the 

 end; branches spreading. This resembles the fourth spe- 

 cies, but the branches are spreading. Desfontaines says, 

 that it is less villose ; that the stem-leaves are more deeply 

 toothed ; arid the pods fewer and pubescent. Native of Al- 

 giers, on the mountains. 



7. Turritis Ciliata. Leaves smooth ; stem-leaves sessile, 

 toothed at the base; with forked ciliate hairs at the base and 

 tip ; stem quite simple and erect. Native of Switzerland. 



8. Turritis Alpina. Root-leaves toothed, hispid; stem- 

 leaves half embracing ; flowers white. Native of Germany, 

 Silesia, and Austria. 



9. Turritis Ovata; American Hairy Tower-Mustard. Plant 

 pubescent; radical leaves petiolate, ovate, dentated, obtuse; 

 stem-leaves embracing the stem, oblong, serrate, acute. 

 Grows on rocks, from Pennsylvania to Virginia. 



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

 gamia-Superflua. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : com- 

 mon cylindrical; scales lanceolate, linear, from fifteen to 

 twenty, equal, as long as the disk, submembranaceous. Co- 

 rolla : compound, various ; corollets in some all herma- 

 phrodite and tubular, or only in the disk; females in some 

 none, in others ligulate: proper of the hermaphrodite funnel- 

 form ; border four or five-cleft, acute, reflexed, longer than 

 the calix, entire. Stamina : in the hermaphrodites, fila- 

 menta five, capillary, very short ; antherae cylindric, tubular. 

 Pistil : in the hermaphrodites, germen short ; style filiform, 

 longer than the stamens ; stigma thickish, in the females, 

 germen short; style filiform, length of the hermaphrodite; 

 stigma bifid, thickish. Pericarp : none ; calix scarcely 

 changed. Seeds : in the hermaphrodites, solitary, oblong, 

 compressed ; down capillary, stipulate : in the females, if 

 any, like the others ; receptacle naked. Observe. The first 

 species has a sessile down ; the ninth varies with floscular 

 and radiate flowers ; and the fourteenth has no ligulate 

 florets in the ray, though in some there are naked female 

 florets. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : scales equal, 

 as long as the disk, somewhat membranaceous. Down: 

 simple. Receptacle: naked. All the plants of this species 

 are propagated by parting their roots in autumn, and must be 

 planted in a moist shady border, where they will thrive, and 

 require no further care but weeding. The species are, 



1 . Tussilago Anandria ; Siberian Coifs-foot. Scape one- 

 flowered, scaly, erect ; leaves lyrate, ovate. The flowers of 

 this very low plant stand upon short footstalks, which rise 

 between the leaves, and are three or four inches long, each 

 sustaining one dirty purple-coloured flower at the top. Na- 

 tive of Siberia. 



2, Tussilago Dentata; West Indian Coifs-foot. Scape one- 

 flowered, without anybracte; flower radiated, erect; leaves 

 sessile, oblong, wavy, toothed, villose. Native of the West 

 Indies. 



3. Tussilago Albicans. Scape one-flowered, naked ; 

 flower radiated, drooping; leaves lanceolate-ovate, tomen- 

 tose beneath, indistinctly serrate backwards ; root annual, 

 simple. Native of Jamaica. 



4. Tussilago Pumila. Scape one-flowered, without any 

 bracte, erect ; leave* lyrate, gashed, toothletted, tomentose ; 

 annual. Native of Jamaica. 



5. Tussilago Nutans, Scape one-flowered, without any 

 bracte; flower nodding; leaves lyrate, obtuse. This is an 

 annual, stemless plant; stalks about a foot high; corolla 

 radiate. Native of Jamaica. 



6. Tussilago Alpina; Alpine Colt's-foot. Scape almost 

 naked, one-flowered; leaves cordate, orbicular, crenate. The 

 peduncles spring from the root, are four inches long, woody, 

 and sustain one purplish flower at top. It flowers in March, 

 April, and May. Native of the Alps, Switzerland, Austria, 

 the south of France, Piedmont, and Siberia. 



7. Tussilago Farfara ; Common Coifs-foot. Scape one- 

 flowered, scaly ; flower radiated ; leaves cordate, angular, 

 toothletted. Root perennial, creeping horizontally far and 

 wide ; stalks five or six inches high, erect, simple, downy, 

 clothed with alternate, ovate, erect, purplish scales three- 

 quarters of an inch long; flowers solitary, terminating, 

 yellow, more conspicuous on account of their radiate form 

 than most of the other species : they come up early in the 

 spring, before the leaves, and at some distance from them: 

 they are upright, but as soon as the bloom is past, and the 

 seeds, with their down, as yet moist, are enclosed within 

 the calix, the heads hang down, till the moisture evaporates 

 in ripening, when they become lighter, are again erected, 

 and the down expands. The cotton on the leaves easily 

 rubs off; this, wrapped in a rag dipped in a solution of 

 saltpetre, and dried in the sun, makes the best tinder. The 

 leaves are the basis of the British Herb Tobacco : they are 

 somewhat austere, bitterish, and mucilaginous, and were 

 formerly much used in coughs, and consumptive complaints. 

 Dr. Cullen found them of considerable service in scrofulous 

 cases. He gave a decoction of the dried leaves, and found 

 it succeed where sea-water had failed ; and Fuller relates 

 the case of a girl, with twelve scrofulous sores, who was 

 cured by drinking daily as much as she could, for four 

 months, of a decoction of the leaves made so strong as to 

 be sweetish and glutinous. It is remarkable that the smok- 

 ing of Colt's-foot, for a cough, has the recommendation of 

 Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, Boyle, and other great men, an- 

 cient and modern; and, according to Linneus, the Swedes 

 smoke it for that purpose. Native of moist chalky situa- 

 tions throughout Europe, flowering in March or April. It is 

 a bad weed on some lands, especially such as have been 

 over-cropped and exhausted. Ploughing and harrowing 

 alone, will not destroy it; it must be drawn out by the 

 roots, 'iJiich may be effected at a small expense in well- 

 tilled land. 



8. Tussilago Japonica. Flowers alternate, radiate; co- 

 rollets yellow. Root bitter, and esteemed by the Japanese 

 as a counterpoison. Native of Japan. 



9. Tussilago Frigida. Thyrse fastigiate; flowers radiate; 

 root perennial, creeping; corolla white, rayed. Native of 

 Lapland, Switzerland, Silesia, Dauphioy, and Siberia. 



10. Tussilago Palmata; Palmate-leaved Colt's-foot. Thyrse 

 fastigiate ; leaves palmate-toothed, which sufficiently distin- 

 guish it from all the rest. Perennial : flowering in April. 

 Native of Newfoundland and Labrador. 



11. Tussilago Alba; White Colt's-foot, or Butter-bur. 

 Thyrse fastigiate ; female florets naked, few. Root perennial, 

 less superficial than that of the ninth species, and not striking 



