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LETTUCE.-LACTUCA. 



Natural order, Compositce. A genus of the 

 Syngenesia Polygamia /Equalis class. 



The Latins gave this plant the name of 

 Lactuca from Lac, on account of the milky 

 juice with which it abounds. The French, 

 for the same reason, call it Laitue ; the Eng- 

 lish name Lettuce is a corruption of either 

 the Latin or French word, and in all proba- 

 bility originated from the former, as several 

 of our old authors spell it Lectuce. 



That this vegetable was in early times es- 

 teemed of the first rank among pot-herbs and 

 salads, we learn from an anecdote related 

 by Herodotus, and which also proves that 

 lettuces were served in their natural state at 

 the royal tables of the Persian kings at least 

 550 years before the Christian era. Cam- 

 byses, son of Cyrus the Great, had his brother 

 Smerdis killed from mere suspicion, and, con- 

 trary to the laws, married his sister : this 

 princess being at table with Cambyses, she 



