ASTERACE^E. 415 



the old authors speak of it in equally favourable terms. Boerhaave had a 

 high opinion of its powers, and esteemed it capable " if duly continued, of re- 

 solving obstinate obstructions and coagulations of the viscera." But like 

 many other remedies, it appeared to be wholly forgotten for a long time, but 

 is again employed both in Europe and this country to some extent, especially 

 in a deranged condition of the digestive organs connected with an abnormal 

 state of the liver, and in dropsical effusions arising from the same cause. In 

 habitual costiveness dependent on a want of due biliary secretion it acts with 

 peculiar benefit, and as an adjuvant to more active remedies ; where the liver 

 is indurated, it has been prescribed with advantage. It has been employed, 

 likewise, in affections of the spleen, uterine obstructions, chronic cutaneous 

 disorders, &c. Where its diuretic effect is required, it is best given in com- 

 bination with supertartrate of potash. Although belonging to the lactescent 

 plants, it does not display any narcotic properties. 



It is administered in the form of decoction or extract. The first is made 

 with two ounces of the root, or whole plant, boiled in two pints of water down 

 to one half; the dose is about a wineglassful. The extract, which is the most 

 general mode of giving it, is very often badly prepared, and almost worthless; 

 when good, it is of a brown colour, and not blackish, wholly soluble in water, 

 and of a bitter and somewhat aromatic taste. The dose is from ten grains to 

 half a drachm. 



The leaves of the dandelion are much used in the spring as greens and 

 salads, and when blanched, closely resemble endive ; the roots are employed 

 in some parts of Europe as a substitute for coffee, like those of the chicory. 



Lactuca. — Linn. 



Heads few to several-flowered. Scales of the cylindrical, calyculate-imbricated invo- 

 lucre in 2 — 4 series; the exterior the shortest. Receptacle naked. Achenia ob-com- 

 pressed, flat, wingless, glabrous, abruptly produced into a filiform beak. Pappus of nu- 

 merous soft, capillary, white bristles, in several series. 



A genus of caulescent herbs, most of which are peculiar to the northern 

 hemisphere, with entire or pinnatifid leaves and paniculate heads. The 

 flowers are of various colours, even in the same species. 



L. sativa, Linn. — Leaves not concave, erect, oblong, narrowed at base, smooth at the 

 midrib. Stem elongated, leafy. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 1118 ; Flore Med. t. 213 ; Stephenson and Churchill, i. 12. 



Common Names. — Lettuce ; Garden Lettuce. 



Foreign Names. — Laitue, Fr. ; Lattuca, It. ; Lattich, Ger. 



Description. — The number of varieties of the garden lettuce are so great, and differ so 

 much from each other, that all that can be said that will apply to the whole of them is, 

 that the leaves are large, milky, frequently wrinkled, usually of a pale-green, but varying 

 to a light-red. The radical leaves are roundish and toothed at the margin ; those of the 

 stem obovate or cordate. The stem is round, leafy, corymbiform at top, with numerous, 

 bright, yellow flowers. 



The native country is unknown, and it is supposed by some botanists to be 

 an accidental variety from some other species, but perpetuated by cultivation, 

 from a very early period, for it was well known to the ancients, and was ex- 

 tensively used as an article of food, as well as a sedative medicine ; thus, be- 

 sides the well-known fable of Venus, after the death of Adonis, using a bed 

 of lettuce leaves to calm her mind and soothe her grief, Galen states, that 

 when he suffered much from wakefulness, he relieved it by eating a let- 



