

THE DANDELION. 155 



In medicine, too, the dandelion is invaluable. In 

 all affections of the liver, or other visceral obstruc- 

 tions, it is one of those very few medicines which 

 acting very slightly as a tonic leaves no injurious 

 after-effects ; so that as a gentle and strengthen- 

 ing aperient, we have no more valuable medicine, 

 whether it be taken in the form of an extract, 

 when it appears in the druggist's shop under its 

 trivial name of taraxacum, or if the expressed juice, 

 or even an infusion, be given in domestic, or rustic, 

 practice. 



I will mention only one other employment of the 

 dandelion. If we would sing a psean in honour of 

 the dandelion and praises have been sung in honour 

 of less honourable things we may imitate the little 

 country children, and tune our pipe nay, manu- 

 facture it with the plant itself, and tread a merry, 

 or a stately measure, as those children do, to an 

 instrument formed of the hollow stalks of the dan- 

 delion-blossoms, inserted, in joints, into each other. 

 A pipe original enough to serve Pan himself! 



