TI-IE BUTTER-BUR 
235 
sionally afflicted our country with a slighter degree of 
fatality. 
The plant which has in later years received the name 
of butter-bur, and is generally so called by country people, 
bears on the summit of a round and spongy stem of about 
eight inches high a crowded duster of pale flesh-coloured 
compound flov^^ers, which unfold and wither away before 
its leaves appear above the ground. Indeed, the blossoms 
of this plant and its foliage, being never in perfection at 
the same time, and having no marks which might induce 
the observer to suppose that they were in any way con- 
nected, are often thought to be, in one instance, a flower- 
less group of foliage, and in the other a leafless branch 
of flowers ; and it is only those who are aware of this 
peculiarity, who would suppose them to be but one plant. 
Exactly the same manner of growth is exhibited by the 
coltsfoot (Tussilago), which puts forth its yellow star by 
the way-side, or in the cultivated field, at one season, and 
its broad leaf at another. 
The leaves of the butter-bur are heart-shaped, having 
their margins irregularly notched. They are quite white 
on the under surface, with a covering of cottony down, 
and are the largest leaves possessed by a British plant. 
One of them, ' ' says Lyte, “ is large enough to cover a 
small table, as with a carpet;” and they are often about 
two feet in width. It is from the covering which their 
size affords that its name petasites is derived; this being 
taken from a Greek word signifying umbrella, or covering. 
Under its ample foliage the poultry, which are often kept 
in country meadows, near farm-houses, shelter themselves 
from the rain, or find a cool retreat from the noonday 
sun, and sit assembled beneath its shade as complacently 
as we should repose on a warm day beneath the cool 
canopy of the oak bough. It is often found on the sides 
of rivers; its leaves running over the banks in summer so 
as to cast a fuller shade on the herbage which springs up 
beneath or between them. The white down which is so 
abundant upon them is picked off by cottage children, and 
used for tinder. 
Bees are remarkably fond of this plant, and may, on a 
fine day, be seen continually hovering about its blossoms, 
humming their low song to the flowers. As it is in bloom 
