1026 LACTUCA. [CLASS XIX. ORDER I. 
branched, round, furrowed, leafy, solid, from one to three feet high, 
abounding, as is the whole plant, with a milky very bitter juice. 
Leaves lanceolate, the lower ones tapering into a slender footstalk, 
the upper ones sessile, cordate at the base, clasping the stem, all 
more or less toothed. Flowers several, each terminating the stem 
and branches, about an inch broad, bright yellow. JInvolucre 
rough, ciliated with pungent bristles, the outer of five, sometimes 
four, loose spreading heart-shaped leafy segments, the inner of eight 
linear lanceolate ones, erect. JF lorets linear, obtuse, toothed at the 
end. Fruit oblong, acute, pale brown, beautifully transversely 
striated with fine wavy lines, the apex tapered into a slender awn, as 
long or longer than the fruit, and crowned by a persistent ring, on 
fine slender feathery pappus. 
Habitat.—Borders of fields, especially in a clayey soil in various 
parts of England, and about Dublin, not found in Scotland. 
Perennial; flowering in June and July. 
This is not an uncommon plant in various parts of Italy, but it 
is far less rough than the plants grown in England, indeed it is 
sometimes almost smooth, but in other respects it is the same. 
GENUS VIII. LACTU'CA.—Liny. Lettuce. 
Nat. Ord. Composi'tx. Juss. 
Gen. Cuar. Jnvolucrum cylindrical, imbricated, the scales mem- 
branous on the margin. Receptacle naked. lowers few. 
Fruit compressed, terminating in a long slender beak. Pappus 
hairy, soft, fugacious—Name from Lac, milk ; so called in 
allusion to the milky juice with which most of the species 
abound. 
1. L. viro'sa, Linn. (Fig. 1201.) Strong-seented Lettuce. Leaves 
spreading, oblong, ovate, toothed, eared at the base, and embracing 
the stem, the mid-rib keeled, and rough, with prickles; flowers 
panicled ; fruit compressed, each side five ribbed, terminating in a 
white beak as long as itself. 
English Botany, t. 1957.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 345.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 290.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 156. 
Root tapering. Stem solitary, erect, scarcely branched, and with 
few leaves smooth above, more or less prickly below. Leaves oblong, 
ovate, a dark glaucous green, the radical ones numerous, finely 
toothed, those of the stem sessile, two eared at the base, and em- 
bracing the stem, often lobed, or sinuated and finely toothed, all with 
the mid-rib prominent, and keeled on the under side, and rough, with 
prickles. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, of numerous flowers. 
Bracteas heart-shaped, somewhat taper pointed. Involuere cylin- 
