426 SYNGENESIA— POLYG.-SUPERF. Tussilago. 



T. Petasites. Linn. Sp. PL 1215. Willd. v. 3. 1971 . Fl. Br. 880. 

 Engl. Bot.v. 6. t. 431. Curt.Lond.fasc.2. t.59. Hook. Scot. 242. 

 Fl.Dan.t.842. DeCand.Fr.v.4. ]5S. Bull.Fr. t. 39 \. Ehrh. 

 PI. Off. 197. 



T. major. Matth. Valgr. v. 2. 199. f. Camer. Epit. 592./. 



Petasites. Rail Syn. 179. Ger. Em. 81 4./. Trag. Hist. 415. f. 

 Fuchs. Hist. 644. f. Jc. 370./. Bod.Pempt.597 .f. Dalech. 

 Hist.}053.f. Tillandslc.]50.f. 



P. n. 138. Hall. Hist. V.]. 61. 



Butter-bur. Petiv. H. Brit. t. 15./. 1 1, 12. 



/3. Tussilago liybrida. Linn.Sp. PI. 1214. Fl. Br. 879. Engl. Bot. 

 V. 6. t. 430. 



T. Petasites foemina. Willd. Sp. Pl.v.3.\97\. Br. in Ait. H. Kew. 

 v.b.36. Hook. Lond.t.] 29. 



Petasites n. 140. Hall. Hist. ?;. 1. 61. 



P. major, floribus pediculis longis insidentibus. Dill, in Raii Sijn. 

 179. Hort.Elth. 309. t. 230. 



P. major et vulgaris prima. Rupp. Jen. ed. 1. 180. 



P. flore minore, elatior. Rupp. Jen. ed. Hall. 1 90. 



P. flosculis in medio majoribus^ reliquis minoribus. Buxb. Hallens. 

 258. 



In moist boggy meadows, about rivulets, and the margins of rivers^ 

 common. /3 occurs in the same places, but very rarely. 



Perennial. April. 



Root thick and fleshy, creeping extensively, with many long fibres ; 

 its reputed virtues sudorific and antipestilential ; externally ap- 

 plied it is recommended for malignant sores and ulcers, and the 

 strong aromatic scent, as well as bitter flavour, indicate some 

 powerful qualities, however what is so easily obtainable may be 

 neglected in modern practice. The leaves are perhaps the largest 

 of any British plant ; when full grown, long after the flower- 

 ^ ing, they are often a yard in diameter, standing on very thick 

 upright footstalks, and of a rounded heart-shaped figure, cut 

 away at the base close to the lateral ribs, doubly or unequally 

 toothed along the margin ; dark green above ; downy, not very 

 white, beneath. Flower-stalks stout, hollow, clothed with con- 

 cave tumid footstalks, bearing rudiments of leaves in their lower 

 half, which gradually become lanceolate bracteas above. Fl. 

 veiy numerous, in a dense, ovate, or oblong, panicle, consti- 

 tuting a true thyrsus, all flosculous or discoid, flesh-coloured, 

 always destitute of any radiant or ligulate^oreis ,- their stalks a 

 little downy ; bracteas and calyx smooth. All i\\e florets are 

 tubular, regularly 5 -cleft, mostly perfect in structure, except a 

 thickness in the stigma, indicative of a defect in that organ, and 

 except a few found occasionally towards the centre, whose an- 

 thers are imperfect or wanting, find which alone ever produce 

 good seeds. 



/3 differs in no respect from the common Petasites in its foliage, 

 but the panicles and their stalks are twice as tall when in seed. 



