722 



TUS 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



T Y P 



so deep as the fourteenth; flowers of a beautiful white, on a 

 scape, from four to eighteen or twenty inches in height, dis- 

 posed in a corymb, from thirty to forty in number. Native 

 of several parts of Europe. 



12. Tussilago Hybrida ; Long-stalked Coifs-foot, or But- 

 ter-bur. Thyrse oblong ; female florets numerous; herma- 

 phrodite florets very few ; antherse separate. Root perennial, 

 thick, and fleshy, creeping very far; flowers flesh-coloured, 

 without any ray. We are almost persuaded, says Dr. Smith, 

 that this plant is the true female of Petasites, (the fourteenth 

 species) being furnished with a small provision only of the 

 other sex, to perform its office occasionally, as in Spinachia, 

 Cannabis, Musa, &c. It flowers in April ; the down of the 

 seeds, forming a silvery plume, is very ornamental and con- 

 spicuous. Native of Germany, Holland, Silesia, Switzerland, 

 Dauphiny, Piedmont, and Great Britain, by the sides of 

 ditches, in several parts of Leicestershire; about Manchester; 

 and near Banbury in Oxfordshire. 



13. Tussilago Paradoxa; Downy-leaved Colt's-foot,or But- 

 ter-bur. Thyrse subovate; female florets naked, many; her- 

 maphrodite, in threes ; antherse free ; leaves triangular, cor- 

 date, toothletted. Root scarcely creeping; flowers nearly 



_>v u Pght, about twenty in a thyrse. Dr. Smith observes, that 

 it is worth consideration, whether the Alba (eleventh species) 

 may not stand in the same relation to this, as the twelfth 

 does to the fourteenth : the antherse in this being separate, 

 as in Hybrida; and united in Alba, as in Petasites. It 

 flowers in April. Native of Switzerland. 



14. Tussilago Petasites; Common Butter-bur. Thyrse 

 ovate ; almost all the florets hermaphrodite, syngenesious ; 

 leaves roundish-cordate, unequally toothed, slightly angular, 

 with rounded converging lobes, paler and somewhat downy 

 beneath. Root perennial, thick and fleshy, creeping very 

 far, and increasing rapidly, so as to be hard to extirpate; in 

 which respect it agrees with the twelfth species, as well as 

 in the appearance and form of its leaves, which, however, 

 are somewhat larger; stalks a span high, thick, downy, 

 clothed with oblong reddish bractes, partly leafy at their ex- 

 tremity; and terminating in a dense ovate panicle of pale 

 dusky flesh-coloured flowers. The younger Linneus, and 

 Haller, have occasionally noted a very few female florets to 

 accompany the others, which, the latter tells us, produces 

 good seeds. This circumstance is rare, and has not been 

 observed in England ; nor, if general, would it invalidate the 

 conjecture, that this is the real male of the Hybrida, and 

 forms but one species with that. All these plants increase 

 so much by root, that impregnation rarely takes place, which 

 is also the case with Mints, and many other vegetables. As 

 the florets of the circumference only, in this genus, produce 

 perfect seeds, the central ones having the thickened stigma, 

 which appears always to be barren, Dr. Stokes and Profes- 

 sor Sibthorp would remove it to the order Polygamia Neces- 

 saria; but syngenesious plants are so subject to such varia- 

 tions in the perfection of their organs of impregnation, that 

 it is by no means certain, how far that order, or indeed some 

 others, are founded in nature. Its large leaves, often three 

 feet broad, are alluded to in the Greek name Petasites: the 

 English name Butter-bur arose fioni the large leaves being 

 used to wrap fresh butter in ; and Pestilcntwort, from its 

 efficacy in epidemic fevers, which is testified in the following 

 words, by Hill: The roots of this plant are an admirable 

 medicine in the worst kind of fevers ; and taken early, 

 prevent those bad effects which arise from the use of im- 

 proper medicines. I remember, says he, that in a fever 

 which raged about twenty years ago, and proved very fatal, 

 it was usual for the physician to ask, at his first visit, if the 



patient had been blooded ; and, if he was answered in the 

 affirmative, told the relations or attendants there was little 

 hope of a recovery. Bleeding indeed was too often produc- 

 tive of fatal consequences ; and I fear the medicines com- 

 monly given on the first attack were little less so. The 

 disease, which was of the putrid kind, raged at the same 

 time in Germany; and while the inhabitants of Great Bri- 

 tain fell a sacrifice to bleeding and chemical medicines, they 

 recovered and lived, by making use of Bntter-bur. The 

 method of using the root is this : After having cut away 

 the fibres from the body of the root, and washed it, slice 

 two ounces of it, thin, into a clean earthen vessel, and pour 

 on it a quart of boiling-hot soft water ; let it stand till cold, 

 and then pour it clear off, adding about a quarter of a pint of 

 mountain wine to it, and a little fine sugar, and let a quarter 

 of a pint of this be taken every fourth hour : the spirits will 

 be raised ; the anguish and depression which accompanies 

 these ,kind of fevers, and proclaim their fatality, will be 

 removed ; a kind gentle sweat will soon come on ; every bad 

 symptom will vanish; and the patient will speedily recover 

 his health. If, in the worst of cases, a boil or bubo should 

 make its appearance under the arms, or in any other part of 

 the body, make an ordinary poultice of white bread and 

 milk, and to a half-pint bason of it add a quarter of a pound 

 of Butter-bur roots, bruised, but not boiled, together with 

 a little salad oil. Apply this on the part ; let it be kept 

 warm, and renewed frequently ; so will the patient have all 

 the chance for a recovery which the nature of the case 

 admits. I could say much more on this subject, but it 

 would be an unnecessary task to prove that the sun gives 

 light; and it is no less certain that this root is the best 

 known remedy for putrid and pestilential fevers. >It flowers 

 in April ; and is found throughout Europe, on the banks of 

 rivers and ditches, &c. 



15. Tussilago Sagittata. Thyrse ovate, fastigiate; flowers 

 radiated; radical leaves oblong, acute, sagittate, very entire; 

 lobes obtuse. Grows at Hudson's bay. 



Tutsan. See Hypericum. 



Twaybla.de. See Ophrys. 



Typha; a genus of the class Moncecia, order Triandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flowers numerous, in an 

 ament, terminating the culm. Calix: ament common, cylin- 

 drical, very close, composed of three-leaved setaceous proper 

 perianths. Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta three, capil- 

 lary, length of the calix ; antheree oblong, pendulous. Fe- 

 male Flowers numerous, in an ament surrounding the same 

 culm, digested very compactly. Calix: perianth of many ca- 

 pillary bristles. Corolla: none. Pistil: germen placed on a 

 bristle, ovate; style awl-shaped; stigma capillary, permanent. 

 Pericarp : none ; fruits numerous, forming a cylinder. Seeds: 

 single, ovate, retaining the style, placed on a bristle; down 

 capillary, from the base to the middle, fastened to the seed- 

 bearing' bristle, length of the pistil. ESSENTIAL CHARAC- 

 TER. Male : ament cylindrical. Calix : indistinct, three- 

 leaved. Corolla: none. Female: ament cylindrical, below 

 the males. Calix: a villose hair. Corolla: none. Seed: 

 one, placed on a capillary down. The species are, 



1. Typha Latit'olia; Great Cal's-tail, or Reed-mace. 

 Leaves somewhat sword-shaped ; male and female spike 

 approximating. Root perennial, creeping, the thickness of 

 the human thumb, jointed, spongy, furnished with small 

 fibres of a whitish colour : the young shoots, while tender, 

 terminating in a sharp hard point, like Quick-grass ; stalk 

 from three to six feet high, simple, upright, leafy, round 

 and smooth, without knots, leafy at the bise. The female 

 ament i- contiguous to the male; the germen very minute, 





