886 
SYNGENESIA. JEQUALIS. Lactuca, 
on the fruit-stalks. Calyx , scales unequal, spear-shaped. Seeds fur¬ 
rowed, rough, black. Woodvv. ( Plant abundantly latescent. E.) Blos¬ 
soms numerous, small, yellow, closing before noon. 
Cut Lettuce. Strong-scented Lettuce. Ditch banks. (Common 
in calcareous soil. E.) Borders of fields. In a stone quarry at Thorp 
Arch, Yorkshire. Mr. Wood. World’s End, near Stepney, and banks of 
the Thames between Blackwall and Woolwich. Mr. Jones. (Around 
Lydden Spout, South Kent, it attains a height of seven or eight feet, 
adding a remarkable feature to the precipitous cliffs, and environed by 
numerous botanical attractions. Mr. G. E. Smith. E.) Old walls in Bun¬ 
gay, and near Diss. Mr. Woodward. (Bank between the castle at Barnard 
Castle and the river Tees; on the banks of Tweed, above Coldstream 
bridge. Winch Guide. At the base of Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh. Light- 
foot. Stone-bridge, Warwickshire. Bree, in Purton. E.) 
B. July—Aug.* 
Var. 2. Leaves entire. 
Pet. 15. 1— Trag. 268—Lonic. i. 91. 3— Lob. Adv. 89, and Ic. i. 241. 1— 
Ger. Em. 309. 1— Park. 813. 
(Lactuca sylvestris , folio non laciniato. R. Syn. E.) L. Scariola (8. Huds. 
St. 
With variety 1, but less frequent. Ray. 
L. salig'na. Leaves hastate-linear or pinnatifid, sessile: mid-rib 
prickly on the hack. 
Jacq. Austr. 250 —( E. Bot. 707. E.)— Hall. Jen. 4<, at p. 207 — C.B.Pr. 
68. 1 —Park. 783. i—H. Ox. vii. 6. 18— Pet. 15. 4. 
(Plant very slender. Stem two feet high, wavy, pale brown or whitish, 
leafy throughout. Sm. E.) Leaves arrow-shaped at the base ; the lower 
wing-cleft; segments few, alternate, strap-shaped, finely toothed, with 
a sharp point at the end, somewhat hooked, the terminal one long: the 
upper entire, strap-shaped ; the mid-rib not always prickly. Floral- 
leaves arrow-shaped, broad at the base, tapering to a point. Flowers 
* The juice smells like opium ; it is milky, acrid, and bitter; (and may be administered 
beneficially as a mild anodyne. Lettuce lozenges are sold in the shops, and recommended 
for coughs. E.) Dr. Collin, of Vienna, relates twenty-four cases of dropsy, out of which 
twenty-three were cured by taking the extract prepared from the expressed juice, in doses 
from eighteen grains to three drams in twenty-four hours. It commonly proves laxative, 
in a degree diaphoretic, and removes thirst. It must be prepared when the plant is in 
flower. (Dr. Swediaur says the juice is sedative and diuretic, and commendable in dropsy 
and jaundice. The Caledonian Horticultural Society, in 1 824, awarded their honorary 
gold medal to Mr. F. G. Probart, of Lincolnshire, for his method of cultivating and 
preparing Lactucarium , or Lettuce Opium. Mr. Salisbury remarks that all kinds of 
garden, or other Lettuce, yield milky juice with similar properties : but that the juice is 
not milky till such time as the plant produces seed-stalks, and then the taste in general is 
too nauseous for it to be eaten. This juice is often sufficiently tenacious to detain ants and 
other insects, and so exuberant as to exude even upon the touch of their light feet. Can 
its narcotic quality produce any morbid influence over these little invaders ? Livia Lac- 
tacce is not deterred by these dangers. Mr. Markwiek relates that the leaves chopped 
small, are used to fatten ducks and turkies. The land tortoise feasts upon this and other 
lactescent plants. It is fabled that, after the death of Adonis, Venus, inconsolable, sought 
sweet oblivion by reclining on a bed of Lettuce ; perhaps a figurative allusion to its 
anodyne properties. 
<c And now let Lettuce , with its healthful sleep, 
Make haste,”—Columella, E.) 
