COLTSFOOT. 



17 



the blossomed plants must be pulled by hand. The seeds 

 are not numerous ; and a well-executed summer fallowing; 

 of the land, will do much in eradicating the tribe of 

 sparingly seeded plants. 



11. The "Coltsfoot," or the "Tussilago" of botany, is a 

 plant of much frequency on damp clayey loams, that are 

 adapted for the green crop cultivation. It belongs to the 

 class and order " Syngenesia Polygamia Superflua" of Lin- 

 neus ; and the natural order " Corymbiferse " of Jussieu. 



Generic character. — Calyx, common cylindrical. Scales, 

 lanceolate, linear, (fifteen or twenty), equal, as long as the 

 disk, submembranaceous. Corolla compound, various. 

 CoroUets in some are hermaphrodite and tubular, or only 

 in the disk. Females in some none, in others hgulate. 

 Proper of the hermaphrodite, funnel-formed, border five- 

 cleft (or four-cleft), acute, reflexed, longer than the calyx. 

 Females none, or ligulate, very narrow, longer than the 

 calyx, entire. Stamina : in the hermaphrodites, filaments 

 five; capillary very short; anther cylindric, tubular. Pistil 

 in the hermaphrodites, germ short. Style filiform, longer 

 than the stamen. Stigma thickish. In the females, germ 

 short ; style fihform, length of the hermaphrodite ; stigma 

 bifid, thickish; pericarp none; calyx scarcely changed. 

 Seeds in the hermaphrodites, solitary, oblong, compressed. 

 Down capillary, stipulate. In the females, if any, Hke the 

 others. Receptacle naked. 



Essential character. — Calyx, scales equal, as long as 

 the disk, somewhat membranaceous. Down simple. Re- 

 ceptacle naked. 



The common or field species of coltsfoot is the " Tussilago 

 Farfara." Scape one-flowered, scaly-leaves, cordate, an- 

 gular, toothletted. Root perennial, creeping horizontally, 

 far and wide. Flowers solitary, terminating, yellow, more 

 conspicuous on account of their radiate form than most of 

 the other species. The flowers come up early in the spring 

 before the leaves, and at some distance from them ; they are 

 upright, but as soon as the bloom is past, and the seeds, with 

 their down as yet moist, are inclosed within the calyx, the 



c 



