N. 0. COMrOSIT®. 
723 
An annual or biennial, glabrous or nearly so, tall, erect, very 
leafy. Stems erect, 2-5ft., branched, usually prickly towards the 
base. Leaves sessile, 5-7in., pinnatifid, segments toothed, point- 
ing downwards ; lower surfaces usually prickly on the midrib 
and nerves ; stem-leaves lobed at the base. Heads ^in. long, 
erect ; flowers yellow. Achenes brown ; beak very slender, 
about as long as the body (Collett). 
“ Inflorescence,” says J. D. Hooker, “variable, sometimes 12in. 
diam. ; with incurved, ascending corymbose branches, at others 
laxly paniculate. Branches and peduncles. White, with many 
appressed, green, cordate bracts. Involucre-bracts ovate, inner 
linear ; ligules yellow or dull-reddish outside. Achenes iin., 
including the very slender beak, ribbed, pale ; pappus |in. ’ 
Use : — In the wild state the seeds produce to a certain extent 
narcotic and sedative effects, but these appear to be almost 
entirely removed by cultivation (Dymock). 
From the sap may be prepared a resinous dry juice, known 
commercially as Lactucarium. The common Lettuce yields 
only about 18 grains for each plant, but the scented and wild 
English Lettuce, Lactuca virosa, Linn., yields 56 grains. This 
juice is prepared just as the plant begins to flower. Dr. 
Duncan, nearly a century ago, showed that the juice might 
be used as a substitute for opium, having most of the proper- 
ties of that drug without its bindiug effects. Smith, in his 
Dictionary of Economic Plants, mentions an instance, in July 
1879, where a man died from the effects of the narcotic, through 
eating lettuce. Thus, it would seem that the strength of the 
narcotic varies considerably, and that the drug is not certain. 
Its action is not so reliable as opium, but it may be used as a 
mild hypnotic. Dose 2 to 10 grains of the dry juice. The 
officinal preparation is the Extract prepared from the fresh 
plant ; a mild sedative, anodyne, purgative, diuretic, diaphore- 
tic, and antispasmodic, said to be useful in the treatment of 
the coughs in phhisis, bronchitis, asthma and pertussis. It 
has also been recommended for rheumatism and insanity with 
doubtful results. In native medical practice, a decoction of the 
seeds is used as a demulcent. Dose 3ii to 3ss. (Watt). 
