COMPOSITE. 145 



The \vl\ole plant contains a milky juice, possessed of diuretic, tonic, and stomachic 

 qualities. It has long been employed in chronic disorders of the digestive organs, and 

 especially of the liver. It is still retained in the British rharmacopceia, and is used 

 largely by some practitioners in the form of an extract. We know that some good 

 folks, who do not believe in the mysterious processes of the chemist's laboi-atory, prefer 

 making a decoction of the roots and leaves for themselves, and thus ridding their own 

 and their neighbours' gardens of a troublesome weed. 



In Holland, the extract of Dandelion is a common remedy for the intermittent 

 fevers and agues so prevalent in that marshy country. The roots are taken uj) about 

 Midsummer, and those only of some years' growth are esteemed valuable, as the active 

 principle they contain increases with age : this principle is known to the chemists aa 

 an alkaloid called Taraxacin. In Germany the roots are cut into pieces, roasted, and 

 used as a substitute for coffee. In this country Dandelion coffee is sometimes used for 

 medicinal purposes, but it is generally mixed with true coffee to give it a better flavour. 

 In early spring, the young leaves blanched are much used on the Continent as an 

 ingredient in salads. They are very wholesome, and sheep and other animals that feed 

 on them are said to be benefited thereby. 



Dr. Withering tells us that the diuretic properties of this plant are very certain, 

 and well known to all country people. WJien a swarm of locusts had destroyed the 

 harvest in the island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted on this plant. The 

 expressed juice has been given to the quantity of four ounces three or four times a day; 

 and Boerhaave had a great opinion of its utility in visceral obstructions. The roots 

 contain gum and sugar, and a large quantity of inulin, a substance analogous to starch. 

 A kind of beer is obtained by the fermentation of the plant in Canada, where it is 

 nearly as common as it is here. The old name of the plant, Leontodon, was but another 

 form of the common English name Dandelion, which is a corruption of the French 

 DetU de Lwn, derived from the tooth-like segments of the leaves. 



GENVS XZXF77.— L A C T U A. Linn. 



Antliodes few-flowered. Pericline cylindrical, of rather few 

 phyllaries, imbricated in 2 to 4 series, those of the outermost series 

 generally much shorter. Clinanth naked. Achenes much com- 

 pressed, with 1 or more ribs on the face, suddenly narrowed into 

 a slender beak without spines at the base and surmounted by a 

 small disk. Pappus of white capillary denticulate simple hairs. 



Herbs, with leafy stems and numerous small anthodes, gene- 

 rally panicled. Florets yeUow, blue, or purple. Juice milky. 



I The name of this genus of plants comes from lac, lactis, milk ; the whole plant 

 being lactescent. 



SPECIES I.— LACTUCA VI ROSA. Linn. 



! Plate DCCCV. 



\B%[U>1, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1253. 

 Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCCXXII. 

 VOL. V. U 



