414 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



II. COLTSFOOT. TUSSILAGO. 



Herbs, with perennial, creeping rootstocks, and large, broad, deeply 

 cordate radical leaves ; the flowering stems issuing from separate buds, 

 with small, narrow, alternate leaves or scales, and terminal flower-heads, 

 either solitary or in a raceme. Involucre of several linear bracts, with 

 a few small outer ones. Outer florets female, either filiform or narrow- 

 ligulate, the inner ones tubular, or sometimes all tubular. Receptacle 

 without scales. Branches of the style cylindrical or club-shaped. 

 Achenes cylindrical, with a copious pappus of simple hairs. 



A genus of very few European or north Asiatic species, easily known 

 among British Composites by the peculiar foliage. 



Flower-heads solitary, the external florets yellow and nar- 

 row ligulate 1. Common C. 



Flower-heads in a compound raceme, purple or pink, nearly 



all tubular, or nearly all small and filiform, not ligulate 2. Butterbur C. 



1. Common Coltsfoot. Tussilago Farfara, Linn. (Fig. 491.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 429. Coltsfoot.) 



Flowering stems simple, but often 

 growing in tufts, erect, about 6 inches 

 high, more or less covered with a loose, 

 white cotton ; the small leaves or scales 

 numerous, oblong or linear, entire and 

 erect. Flower-head solitary, terminal ; 

 the florets of the ray numerous, ligulate, 

 very narrow, but not long, of a bright 

 yellow. Radical leaves appearing much 

 later than the flower-stems, 4 or 5 inches 

 broad, angular and toothed, covered 

 underneath with a loose, white, cottony 

 wool, of which there is a little also on 

 the upper side. 



In waste and cultivated ground 

 throughout Europe and central and 

 Russian Asia to the Arctic Circle, and 

 a very troublesome weed in poor, stiff 

 soils. Abundant in Britain. FL early 

 spring. 



Fig. 491. 



