1060 PETASITES. {CLASS XIX, ORDER I. 
GENUS XXIV. PETASI'TES.—Desr. Butter-bur. 
Nat. Ord. Composi’rx. Juss. 
Gen. Cuan. Involucrum of two rows of lanceolate scales. J/lorets 
all perfect, or the central ones perfect, and those of the rays with 
pistils only. Receptacle naked. Pappus hairy—Name 
metacos, a covering to the head, or umbrella, from the great size 
of the leaves, the largest of any of our herbaceous plants. 
1. P. vul'garis, Desf. (Fig. 1251.) Common Butter-bur. Leaves 
cordate, unequally toothed, downy beneath; lobes at the base 
rounded ; flowers in a dense oblong thyrsus; stigma of the perfect 
flowers short, ovate. 
Hooker, British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 803.—English Flora, vol. 
iii. p. 427.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 147. 
a. Flowers sterile, bearing anthers, rarely pistils, and seed.— 
Tussilago Petasites, Linn.—English Botany, t. 434. 
f. Flowers fertile, bearing seed, rarely stamens. 
T. hybrida. English Botany, t. 430. 
Root fleshy, wit long creeping underground stems. Leaves nunie- 
rous, very large, often a yard in diameter, of a rounded heart-shaped 
figure, the lobes round, cut to the base of the lateral ribs, unequally 
toothed on the margin, green and smooth above, pale and cottony be- 
neath, the ribs stout, prominent, the footstalk long, stout, channeled, 
dilated and sheathing at the base. Flower stalk erect, about a foot 
high, round, white, with down, scattered over with short footstalks, 
bearing rudiments of leaves in the lower part of the stem, in the 
upper they are simple lanceolate bractea. Inflorescence an oblong 
crowded thyrsus, of numerous heads, on short stalks, from the axis of 
linear bractea. Jnvolucre two rows of lanceolate obtuse scales, three 
ribbed, and somewhat downy. Jlorets tubular, five cleft, pink, 
bearing stamens only or pistils only, or both in the same floret. 
Fruit ovate. Pappus white silky hairs. 
Habitat.—Moist meadows, banks of rivers, drains, &c.; frequent. 
Perennial; flowering in April and May before the leaves are 
expanded. 
The roots of this plant have been recommended as an aperient 
anti-pestilential and sudorific, and have been applied externally to 
malignant “ sores and ulcers.” They have a strong somewhat 
aromatic smell and bitter acrid taste; their use as a medicine now 
however, is entirely neglected. It is planted by the Swedish farmers 
near their bee hives, as this species, with P. alba and fragrans, are 
amongst the earliest of our spring flowers, and are largely resorted 
to by the bees on fine sunny days. 
