COMPOSITE. 145 
The whole plant contains a milky juice, possessed of diuretic, tonic, and stomachic 
qualities. It has long been employed in chronic disorders of the digestive organs, and 
especially of the liver. It is still retained in the British Pharmacopoeia, and is used 
largely by some practitioners in the form of an extract. We know that some good 
folks, who do not believe in the mysterious processes of the chemist's laboratory, prefer 
making a decoction of the roots and leaves for themselves, and thus ridding their own 
ami their neighbours' gardens of a troublesome weed. 
In Holland, the extract of Dandelion is a common remedy for the intermittent 
- and agues so prevalent in that marshy country. The roots are taken up about 
Midsummer, and those only of some years' growth are esteemed valuable, as the active 
principle they contain increases with age : tlm principle is known to the chemists as 
an alkaloid called Taraxacin. In Germany the roots are cut into pieces, roasted, and 
Med a.s a substitute for coffee. In this country Dandelion coffee is sometimes used for 
medicinal purposes, but it is generally mixed with true coffee to give it a better flavour. 
In early spring, the young leaves blanched are much used on the Continent as an 
ingredient in salads. They are very wholesome, and sheep and other animals that feed 
on them are said to be benefited thereby. 
Dr. Withering tells us that the diuretic properties of this plant are very certain, 
and well known to all country people. When a swarm of locusts had destroyed the 
est in the island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted on this plant. The 
expressed juice has been given to the quantity of four ounces three or four times a day; 
and Boerhaave had a great opinion of its utility in visceral obstructions. The roots 
contain gum and sugar, and a large quantity of inulin, a substance analogous to starch. 
A kind of beer is obtained by the fermentation of the plant in Canada, where it is 
nearly as common as it is here. The old name of the plant, Leontodon, was but another 
form of the common English name Dandelion, which is a corruption of the French 
Dent de Lion, derived from the tooth-like segments of the leaves. 
GENVS XXXVIL—L A T U C A. Linn. 
Anthodes few-flowered. Pericline cylindrical, of rather few 
phyllaries, imbricated in 2 to 4 series, those of the outermost series 
generally much shorter. Clinanth naked. Achenes much com- 
pressed, with 1 or more ribs on the face, suddenly narrowed into 
a slender beak without spines at the base and surmounted by a 
small disk. Pappus of white capillary denticulate simple hairs. 
Herbs, with leafy stems and numerous small anthodes, gene- 
rally panicled. Florets yellow, blue, or purple. Juice milky. 
The name of this genus of plants comes from lac, lactis, milk ; the whole plant 
being lactescent. 
SPECIES I.— LACTUCA VIROSA. Linn. 
Plate DCCCV. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1253. 
tieidt. Ic. El Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCCXXII. 
VOL. V. U 
