CLASS XIX, ORDER I. | LACTUCA. 1027 
drieal, of numerous linear imbricated scales, the outer ones small, 
lax, the inner equal, erect. Jlorets few, bright yellow, linear, obtuse, 
toothed at the end. Fruit ovate, compressed, on each side are five 
lines, the apex smooth, terminating in a beak as long as itself. 
Pappus fine white shining rough hairs. 
Habitat.—Banks and road sides in a chalky soil, not uncommon; 
rare in Scotland, about Edinburgh, Dunkeld, Coldstream, Melrose, 
and Stirling Castle. 
Biennial ; flowering in August. 
Almost all the species of this genus abound with a bitter milky juice, 
but when the plants are young, or the leaves grown excluded from the 
light, the slight bitterness is by no means unpleasant, and in this 
state they are used as a pleasant salad; but the juice which exudes 
from the wounded leaves and stems of old plants is intensely bitter, 
and possesses sedative properties. From these plants the juice is 
collected, and when dried, has a brown colour, of much the same 
odour as opium, and is known by the name of Lactucarium. In this 
state it has been found a useful medicine in the form of pills, in the 
dose of from one to six grains, in allaying coughs, and procuring 
sleep in various affections of the chest, &. Its action upon the 
nervous system is less felt after its use than that of opium. In Italy, 
an infusion of, or water distilled from its leaves and stems, is much used 
to allay nervous irritations of the system, in fevers, inflammations, &e. 
In some of the species of Lactuca, as L, virosa, elongata, and. sceariola, 
the juice is much more narcotic than that of the commonly cultivated 
species, L. sativa, crispa, and quercina. 
The cultivation of the Lettuce is familiar to every lover of a garden ; 
and by sowing a bed every month a regular supply all the year round 
may be obtained for the table. 
2. L. Scuri'ola, Linn. (Fig. 1202.) Prickly Lettuce. Leaves nearly 
erect, ovate oblong, acute, eared at the base, sinuated, and ciliato 
dentate, the mid-rib keeled, and rough, with prickles ; panicle leafy ; 
fruit compressed, each side five ribbed, terminating in a white beak 
as long as itself. 
English Botany, t. 268,—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 345. Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 290.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 156. 
Root tapering. Stem solitary, erect, round, smooth, leafy, from two 
to three feet high. Leaves oblong, ovate, acute at the point, a 
glaucous green, smooth, the radical ones with a footstalk, the upper 
ones sessile, with an auricle on each side, all nearly erect, not 
spreading, as in the last species, and variously sinuated in a pin- 
natifid or runcinate manner, and copiously toothed on the margin 
with bristle-like teeth, the midrib on the under side acutely keeled 
and rough, with prickles. Inflorescence similar to the last, the fruit 
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