COLTSFOOT. 



Tussilago Farfara. Nat. Ord., 

 Composite. 



HEREVER we find a moist 

 clayey soil, there ordinarily 

 the coltsfoot is only too abun- 

 dant. It betokens stiff poor 

 ground, and proves itself a 

 very troublesome adjunct to 

 it, as it spreads freely, and 

 can scarcely ever be eradicated 

 when it has once taken pos- 

 session. Its roots are very 

 long-, and, to quote an old 

 writer, " very fat." They are 

 about the thickness of a finger 

 really, creeping- freely under- 

 ground, and as the root-stock 

 is perennial, they propagate 

 themselves freely far and wide. 

 The most vigorous attempts to 

 dispossess them seem of little avail, as the long- spreading 

 fibres break in the ground, and any small portion left 

 behind seems sufficient to reinstate the plant in a short 

 time in all its former luxuriance. At the same time, we 

 hesitate to assert that its influence is wholly bad, for, 



