4jo SYNGENESIA : POLYGAMIA ^QUALIS. 



herb, t, 15./. i, 2. Moris, hiji. f 7. /. 2. /. 16. 

 melior.) 



Strong-fcented wild Lettuce. Anglis, 



On banks and by way-fides, but rare. We ob- 

 ferved it in the park at Edinburgh^ at the foot of 

 Arthur's feat, i . VIII. 



The flalk is three or four feet high, fcattered over 

 with a few fpines, and branched. The radical 

 leaves are broad and intire, but thofe on the 

 ftalk are not always fo, being fometimes deeply 

 jagged or pinnated half-way to the rib, and all 

 of them armed with prickly ferratures on the 

 edges. I'hey embrace the flalk at the bafe, and 

 the rib on the under fide is prickly. The upper 

 leaves alfo embrace the ftalk, but are intire and 

 oval-lanceolate. The calyx and upper part of the 

 ftalk is vifcid. The flowers yellow. The feeds 

 have a ftiarp prickly apex, are mark'd with tu- 

 berculous ftreaks above their middle part, and 

 are crown'd with a foft fimple down, ftanding on 

 a fine flendcr pedicle. 



The whole plant is full of a bitter milky juice, 

 which, when dry, is inflammable, and not infe- 

 rior to opium in its virtues, The leaves are nar- 

 cotic, and if eaten will intoxicate, which has 

 occafioned it to be called poifonous, and men 

 -have from thence been fVighted from the ufe of 

 it ; but it is a very gentle and fafe opiate. The 

 bell way of giving it is in a fyrrup made from 

 a deco61:ion of the frefh leaves and ftalk. In 



this 



