NAT. ORDER. 
Compositce. 
TUSSILAGO FARFARA. COMMON COLTS-FOOT. 
Class XIX. Syngenesia. Order 11. Superflua. 
Gen. Char. Receptacle^ naked. Papus, simple. Calyx, scales equal, 
as long as the disk, somewhat membranaceous. 
Spe. Char. Scape, one flowered, imbricate. Leaves, subcordate, 
angular and toothed. 
The root is long, round, tapering, creeping, and sends off many 
small short fibres ; the stalks are fiirrowed, downy, simple, six or 
eight inches high, beset with several scaly leaves, of a brownish 
pink color, and closely embracing the stem ; the leaves are obtusely 
heart-shaped, angular, irregularly indented, above of a bright, green 
color, beneath white, downy, and stand upon long roundish radical 
footstalks ; the jlowers are compound, large and yellow ; the florets 
in the disc are hermaphrodite, tubular, the limb is cut into five acute 
segments, which curl outwardly; the anthers, by uniting, form a 
tube, but their apices are separate and pointed ; the germen is short ; 
the style is fihform and longer than the anthers ; the stigma is round ; 
the fllorets at the circumference are female, tubular at their bases, 
and the limb is long and linear ; the germen is oblong ; the stigma 
bifid ; the seed is oblong, and of a pale brown color, crowned with 
simple down ; the calyx is cylindrical ; the , leaflets are oblong, 
pointed, and alternately narrower. It is found most common in 
moist, clayey places, and the flowers appear sometimes before the 
leaves, which usually takes place in March and April. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — The sensible qualities of colts- 
foot at the present time, are not considered as being of much im- 
portance in the practice of medicine ; it has a rough mucilaginous 
