198 



HERBS 



ligulate corollas, the disc-florets being less numerous and tubular. 

 The receptacle is flat and naked, the fruits cylindrical, tapering towards 

 the base and provided with an abundant pappus of white simple hairs. 

 The leaves appear much later than the flowers, and arise from 

 separate shoots. They are radical and provided with long stalks ; 

 the lamina is cordate about 10 or 15 cm. in breadth, but occasionally 

 much larger. The margin is sinuate-dentate, each tooth terminating in a 

 hard brown point. The upper surface is dull greyish green and minutely 

 wrinkled. Both surf aces^are covered when young with loose, white, 



felted, woolly hairs, but 

 those on the upper surface 

 fall off as the leaf expands. 

 After the leaves have 

 died down the shoot rests, 

 and produces in the fol- 

 lowing spring a flowering 

 stem, whilst other shoots 

 develop leaves. 



Neither leaves nor flowers 

 have, when dried, any cha- 

 racteristic odour or taste. 

 The student should ob- 

 serve 



(a) The short, very nar- 

 row, ligulate corolla, 



(b) The cylindrical fruit 

 with pappus of white, 

 simple bristles, 



(c) The shape and mar- 

 gin of leaves and their 

 hairy under surface, 



(d) The characteristic 

 glandular hairs on the 

 peduncle. 



Constituents. No active constituent is known. The drug contains 

 a little tannin, and Bondurant (1887) found indications of a bitter 

 glucoside which was not isolated. 



* Coltsfoot is used as a domestic remedy for coughs. 



FIG. 106. Coltsfoot leaf. About two-thirds 

 natural size. 



GRINDELIA 



(Herba Grindeliae) 



Source, &c. The drug consists of the dried leaves and flowering tops 

 of Grindelia camporum, Greene (N.O. Compositce), the common 'gum 

 plant ' of Calif ornia, and is collected in quantity near San Francisco. 



