724 INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



The seeds are given boiled or made into a confection, in 

 cases of bronchitis, especially chronic ones. (Calthrop in 

 Watt's Dictionary). 



Lettuce poultice acts as a soothing application to painful 



and irritable ulcers (Shircore, in Watt's Dictionary). 



The juice from the incised flower-stalk of LacUica virosa and other species, 

 collected and dried, is known as Lactucarium. Syrup and tincture of this are 



used as a sedafciva in irritable cough. 



696 — Sonchus oleraeeus, Linn., h.f.b.l, hi. 414, 



Eoxb. 593. 



Vera. :— Titaliya (Patna) ; Dodak fPb.) ; Ratrinta (Tel.); 



Mhatara (Bomb.) 



Habitat : — Throughout India, in fields and cultivated places 

 (J. D. H). Common in Simla fields (Collett). Trimen observes that 

 the plant is found as a weed in cultivated ground in Ceylon. 



Annual erect, milky glabrous or sparsely glandular hispid 

 herbs, subumbellately branched above. Stems 2-3ft. Leaves 

 thin, lanceolate entire or pinnatifld, 3-6in., J-amplexicaul, with 

 acute auricles, terminal lobes large, leteral lobes pointing down- 

 wards ; sometimes only one pair ; teeth small ; basal lobes acute 

 entire or pinnatifld. Heads -f-lin. diam., arranged in umbellate 

 cymes. Achenes compressed ; faces 3-ribbed and muricate 

 between the ribs. 



Uses : — According to Dr. Landry, the brownish gum formed 

 by evaporation of the common sow thistle, when taken internally 

 in a close of 2-4 grains, behaves as an " intensely powerful hy- 

 dragogue cathartic" and acts powerfully upon the liver, duode- 

 num and colon. In its general effects, it is said to most resemble 

 elaterium, producing large and watery discharges, so that it has 

 proved a valuable therapeutic agent in ascites and hydrothorax. 

 It requires, however, great care in its administration, since it 

 has the disadvantage of griping like senna, and producing 

 tenesmus like aloes. To counteract this, and to " correct its 

 fierce attacks on the mucous membrane of the intestinal tract," 

 Dr. Landry recommends that the gum should be administered 



