1056 LAPPA. | CLASS XIX, ORDER I. 
plant is removed from the poor soil in which it grows into a richer 
one, it puts out a stem several inches high, and often then bears 
several heads of flowers. 
GENUS XX. LAP'PA.—Tourn. Burdock. 
Nat. Ord. Composi'rz. Juss. 
Gen. Cuan. Jnvolucrum globose, imbricated, the scales spinous, the 
apex recurved into a hook. Receptacle paleaceous. Pappus 
short, of rigid unequal hairs.—Name from lap, a hand in 
Celtic ; so called from the hooks of the inyolucre catching hold 
of every thing near it. 
1. L. ma'jor, Gerin. (Fig. 1247.) Common Burdock. Leaves 
cordate, petiolated ; involucre scales smooth. 
L. glabra, Lam.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 154.—Aretium Lappa, 
Linn.—English Botany, t. 1228.—English Flora, vol. ii. p. 381.-- 
Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. 1. p. 296. 
B. tomentosa. Involucre scales with a cob web like down. 
L. tomentosa, Lam.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 154.—A. Badana, 
Willd.—English Botany, t. 2478.—English Flora, vol. iii. p. 382.— 
A. lappa, P.—Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 296. 
Root tapering, fleshy. Stem erect, about three feet high, striated, 
furrowed much, and spreading. Leaves numerous, broadly heart- 
shaped, waved, petiolated, and three ribbed at the base, white, with 
short close down on the under side, green, and nearly smooth above. 
Flowers numerous, solitary on the end of the branches, or several 
arranged in a sub-corymbose or racemose manner. /lorets few, 
purple, tubular, the limb cut into five narrow segments. Involucre 
globose, of numerous awl-shaped spreading scales, slender, triangular, 
and hooked at the apex, smooth, or interwoven with a cob-web like 
down. fruit abrupt, four angled, obovate, crowned with short rough 
pappus. 
Habitat.—Waste places, road sides, &ec. ; frequent. 
Biennial ; flowering in August. 
The Burdock is well known to every one who has resided in the 
country, and is a large cumbersome looking rough plant. It is 
rarely browsed, except by the ass, snails, and some kinds of cater- 
pillars eat it. In the North of Europe its young roots and tender 
shoots are used as pot-herbs, and the stems stripped of their rind 
before the flowers appear, are eaten raw with oil or vinegar, or boiled 
as a substitute of the more delicate asparagus. The roots and seeds 
have been used in medicine as diuretic and sudorific, it is said, with 
advantage in scurvy, gouty, and rheumatic affections, and diseases of 
