Imatges de pàgina
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nearly sessile, small, Woodw. yellow, (longer than the glaucous calyx, expanding only in fine weather, forming tufted clusters. E.) LEAST LETTUCE. NARROW-LEAVED LETTUCE. Ditch banks and pastures in chalky soil. (On a ditch bank by the road side, at Spechley, near Worcester. Purton. E.) About Pancras church. Ray. Lanes in Dorsetshire, but rare. Pulteney. B. Aug. PRENAN THES.* Receptacle naked: Calyx double: Down hair-like, nearly sessile: Florets about five, in a single

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Curt.-(E. Bot. 457. E.)-Fl. Dan. 509—Clus. ii. 146. 2-Lobs. Obs. 119. 2. and Ic. i. 236. 1—Ger. Em. 293. 5-Park. 805. 2—J. B. ii. 1004-Pet. 15. 5.

(Root rather ligneous. A slender, smooth, brittle, lactescent plant, about a foot high; stem leafy, hollow, cylindrical. Florets yellow, opening wide, longer than the purplish calyx. Fl. Brit. E.) Root-leaves on long leaf-stalks, deeply notched; lower segments few, small, somewhat oval, terminal one large, somewhat triangular, with five lobes, resembling the leaves of Ivy in its creeping state, (sometimes purplish beneath. E.) Flowering branches subdivided. Fruit-stalks slender, each with one flower. Woodw. Stem-leaves amplexicaul, deeply notched; segments opposite, toothed, terminal one largest. Calyx, outer, scales three, spearshaped; inner strap-shaped, generally coloured. Seeds oblong, compressed, scored. Down supported by a short pedicle, (which lengthens as the seed ripens. E.)

(IVY-LEAVED WALL-LETTUCE. E.) Walls. Shady woods, (particularly in calcareous soil. E.)

P. July. LEON'TODON.† Receptacle naked: Calyx tiled, double; the inner scales parallel, equal: Down hair-like.

(1) Down pedicellate.

L. TARAX'ACUM. Outer scales of the calyx entire, reflexed: leaves smooth, notched, and acutely toothed.

Curt.-(E. Bot. 510. E.)-Mill. Ill.-Blackw. 501-Woodv. p. 7-Fl. Dan. 574-Walc.-Ger. 228. 1-H. Ox. vii. 8, row 2. 1-Dod. 636. 1—Lob. Obs. 117. 2, and Ic. i. 232. 2-Ger. Em. 290. 1-Park. 780. 1-Pet. 11.7 —Matth. 506—Fuchs. 680—J. B. ii. 1035—Trag. 262—Lonic. i. 92. 2— Blackw. 1.

(Root spindle-shaped, black. E.) Scape hollow, smooth, cylindrical, fragile, semitransparent, nearly a span high, bearing one large flower. Leaves all radical, varying from wing-cleft, in a very dry situation, to nearly entire in a moist one. Calyx, scales perfectly smooth. Seeds furrowed longitudinally, sharply toothed upwards. Down on a long pedicle; rays simple. Woodw. The notches in the leaves hollowed out like the teeth in a large timber saw. Seeds flat, scored, prickly upwards. Blossom yellow, closing early in the afternoon.

(From ps, prone, and 90s, a flower; the blossom drooping or hanging down, E.) +(From New, a lion, and odes, a tooth; its jagged leaves resembling such. E.)

COMMON DANDELION. (from the French Dent de Lion. Irish: Bearnan Bearnagh. Welsh: Dant y llew cyffredin. Gaelic: Am bearnan-bride. L. officinale. With. Ed. 4. Hull. L. Taraxacum. Linn. E.) Meadows, pastures, road sides, ditch banks, &c. P. April-Sept. Var. 2. Leaves narrower, fewer, more deeply cloven. Seeds reddishbrown. Ray.

Pet. 11. 8.

Grows along with var. 1. and flowers most of the summer.

Var. 3. Palustris. Outer scales of the calyx upright, close to the inner, entire; leaves spear-shaped, very entire, or only toothed.

(E. Bot. 553. E.)-Scop. 48, at ii. p. 100.

Root-leaves oblong, broader towards the end, pointed with teeth, smooth, mid-rib red. Calyx smooth; outer scales egg-shaped, pointed, somewhat membranous at the edge; the inner strap-shaped. Lyons. Calyx, the lowermost scales at first upright, afterwards bent back. Huds. (That very accurate Botanist Mr. Dawson Turner appears to have enjoyed most favourable opportunities of remarking this plant, the L. palustre of Fl. Brit. Lyons, and Relhan; L. Taraxacon of With. Ed. 3: and he thence infers that it is not specifically distinct from L. Taraxacum. He states, "they both grew abundantly in the marshes about Yarmouth, and I constantly remark that though all which are found in the wettest places are clearly L. palustre, yet, as the soil becomes dry, the scales of the calyx are less erect, the colour is less purple and shining, and the leaves take regularly more and more of a runcinate form, till at last they quite lose themselves in the common species. Bot. Guide. p. 441. Messrs. Hooker and Greville also entertain doubts of this species.

Early in the spring, whilst the leaves are yet white, and hardly unfolded, they are an excellent ingredient in salads. (It may be readily blanched by cultivation: (by which mean it is in a great measure deprived of its acrid juice), and its use is supposed to have been introduced by French refugees. E.) The French eat the roots and the blanched leaves, with bread and butter.-(At Gottingen, the roots roasted are used by the poor as a substitute for coffee. Along the banks of the Rhine, Dandelion is especially cultivated for this purpose. Rev. H. T. Ellicombe. E.) Children that eat the plant in the evening experience its diuretic effect, hence the origin of a vulgar name both in this country and among other European nations. When a swarm of Locusts had destroyed the harvest in the island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants subsisted upon 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 the utility of this and other lactescent plants in visceral obstructions. (As a deobstruent, no plant excels it. The expressed juice is the most efficacious way of giving it; next to that the extract. I often join with it advantageously the common Fumitory. Purton. The globular white heads, formed by the expansion of the pappus or down, afford amusement to children;

"Dandelion with globe of down,

The school-boy's clock in every town,
While the truant puffs amain

To conjure lost hours back again."

At rural fêtes we have likewise observed the youngsters aiding the music of the merry dance with a humble imitation of Pandean pipes, made of the hollow flower-stalks fitted into each other. E.)-Goats eat it; swine devour it greedily; sheep and cows are not fond of it; horses tefuse it; the seeds are acceptable to small birds. Phalana Fascelina and Thrips Physopus feed upon it. Linn. (Cryptocephalus sericeus harbours in the flowers. The milky juice is most abundant in the root before the flower-stem shoots up. The bitterness is destroyed by drying, therefore the recent roots only should be used. Drs. W. Philips and Pemberton have published in its favour. E.)

Marsh Dandelion. E.) Hedypnois paludosa. Scop. Leontodon Raii. Gouan. L. Taraxacum paludosum. Lightf. Picris scapo unifloro, foliis glabris semipinnatis, calyce levi. Hall. Leontodon Taraxacum o palustris. Huds. With. Ed. ii.

Hinton Moor, Cambridgeshire. Lyons. Moist places on the sides of mountains in the Isle of Skye. Lightfoot. (Brome Fen, Norfolk. Mr. Woodward. Wet meadows at Barton Bendish. Rev. R. Forby. At Holford ferry, Cornwall. Rev. Pike Jones. In meadows of Dinam demesne, An◄ glesey. Welsh Bot. A very small variety of this plant has been remarked by Mr. Griffith near Llyn y Cwn, Carnarvonshire. E.)

L. AUTUMNA'LE.

(2) Down sessile.

P. June-July. E.)

Stem branched; fruit-stalks scaly leaves spearshaped, toothed, very entire, smooth: down mostly sessile.

(E. Bot. 830. E.)-Fuchs. 320-J. B. ii. 1031—Trag. 265-Dod. 639. 4— Ger. Em. 297. 3-Lonic. i. 92. 3—Ger. 233. 4-Dod. 639. 4-Lob. Obs. 120. 1, and Ic. i. 237. 2—Ger. Em. 296. 2—Park. 794. 4—H. Ox. vii. 7. 6 -Matth. 766-Pet. 12. 1.

Root in the second or third year dying at the end, appearing as if bitten off. Stems sometimes thrice as tall as the leaves. Leaves spear-shaped, quite smooth; teeth bluntish. Flowering branches nearly of an equal height. Calyr inversely egg-shaped, tapering downwards, beset with tapering blackish hairs, and a small quantity of cottony substance. Down of the central florets, sometimes tapering out into a kind of short pedicle; feathered, brownish-white, which colour readily distinguishes it from Hypocharis radicata, which it very much resembles, and the others of the same tribe which flower in the meadows at the same time. St. Florets yellow on both sides. Style and summit set on the upper part with very short and exceedingly fine, white, bristly hairs. Down about the length of the seed, rather longer than the tubular part of the blossom. Seeds compressed, striated.

AUTUMNAL DANDELION. YELLOW DEVIL'S BIT. (L. autumnale. Linn. Hull. Sibth. Hedypnois autumnalis. Huds. Relh. Fl. Brit. Apargia autumnalis. Willd. Sm. Hook. E.) Meadows and pastures.

Var. 2. Leaves hairy. Ray.

With variety 1, and with us the most common. St.

Var. 3. Leaves wing-cleft.

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P. July-Aug.

Var. 5. Dwarf. Leaves blunt, like those of L. Taraxacum. Pet.

With var. 4.

Pet. 12. 4.

L. HIS'PIDUM. (Stalks naked, single-flowered: E.) all the scales of the calyx upright: leaves toothed, very entire, hispid, bristlelike hairs forked.

Curt. 314-(E. Bot. 554. E.)-Fl. Dan. 862-The figures of the older Botanists are not sufficiently exact to allow of determining whether they intended them for this or the next species.

Leaves on leaf-stalks, spear-shaped, somewhat hoary; hairs forked and simple. Seeds slender, rough, striated, the upper part of the ridges toothed, the lower warty; as long as the down. Woodw. Root as if bitten off. Stalk six to sixteen inches high. (Flowers drooping in the bud, bright yellow; florets of the circumference greenish on the outside. E.) The floral-leaf mentioned by Linnæus as discriminating this species from L. hirtum, which has no such appendage, is not always present. ROUGH DANDELION. (L. hispidum. Linn. With. Relh. Hull. Sibth. Abbot. Curt. Hedypnois hispida. Huds. Relh. Fl. Brit. Apargia hispida. Willd. Sm. Hook. Meadows and pastures. Meadows near Worsley Mill, and near Chaddock Hall, Lancashire. Mr. Evans. E.) Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire. St. Vincent's Rocks, Bristol. P. May-Sept.

Var. 2. Leaves entire, and sometimes with shallow teeth, spear-shaped, rough. Linn.

Clus. ii. 141. 2-Ger. Em. 302. 3-Park. 799. 12—J. B. ii. 1038-H. Ox. vii. 7. 12, row 2. f. 4-Pet. 11. 5—Ger. 238. 3. These figures are cited on the authority of Ray.

Dens leonis montanus angustifolius. R. Syn. 171.-L. Turaxacum y. Huds. Near the top of the Glyder mountain, near Lanberris.

L. HIR'TUM. All the scales of the calyx upright: leaves toothed, hairy: hairs undivided: Linn. outer row of seeds destitute of down. Hal.

Curt.-(E. Bot. 555. E.)-Fl. Dan. 901.

Leaves rather stiff, and as it were dry to the touch, and the central parts very much curled when dry; segment oblique; the hairs undivided at the point. Calyx pendent before flowering, channelled when the seeds are ripe the outermost scales dilated on each side at the base, with a fold between. Blossom, the florets of the circumference yellow underneath, and not greenish. Linn. Stem six inches high. Seeds of the circumference crowned with shallow leafy scales, instead of down; those of the centre with a feathered down. Hall. A much smaller plant than L. hispidum, calyx smooth, leaves hairy. In L. autumnale the calyx is hairy and the leaves smooth. Afzel. The want of down to the outer row of seeds sufficiently distinguishes this plant from its congeners. Flowers yellow.

SMALLER ROUGH DANDELION. (L. hirtum. Linn. With. Curt. Hedypnois hirta. Relh. Fl. Brit. H. hispidum, hirtum ß. Huds. Apargia hirta. Hoffin. Sm. Hook. Thrincia hirta. Roth. Willd. Galp. E.) Heaths and commons. Frequent in Devonshire and Cornwall. (Pastures and corn-fields in Astley and Tildesley, Lancashire. Mr. Evans. (On the sea-banks at Tynemouth: rare in the North. Mr. Winch. North Queensferry. Maughan, in Hook. Scot. E.) P. June-Aug.

HIERA'CIUM.*

Receptacle generally naked: Calyx tiled, egg-shaped, sometimes double: Down mostly sessile, hair-like, rarely plumose.

(Obs. This genus has been found so intricate, that the means of discrim inating the intermingling varieties have scarcely yet been discovered. We have ventured to admit several species, which, from the authority on which they rest, may be considered well ascertained; but, notwithstanding the labours of Smith in Linn. Tr. and other works, we are still unable altogether to rectify the confusion of synonyms which in some of the older species has long prevailed. E.)

(1) Stalk leafless, single-flowered; Down simple.

H. PILOSELLA. Leaves very entire, egg-shaped, cottony beneath: suckers creeping.

Curt. 279-(E. Bot. 1093—Fl. Dan. 1110. E.)—Ludw. 144—Walc.— Blackw. 365-Fuchs. 605—Trag. 278-Lonic. i. 95. 3—J. B. ii. 1039— Park. 690. 2-H. Ox. vii. 8. 3-Pet. 11. 1-Dod. 67-Lob. 254. 1, and Ic. i. 479. 1-Ger. Em. 638. 2—Park. 690. 1—H. Ox. vii. 8, row 1, f. 1— Ger. 513. 2.

Suckers covered with down, and hairy, lying close to the ground, not throwing out flowering stems in the autumn, as do H. dubium and auricula. Florets pale yellow, with a broad purple stripe on the under side. Woodw. Calyx, hairs terminated in black globules. (Seeds brown, striated. E.)

CREEPING MOUSE-EAR. MOUSE-EAR HAWK WEED. (Irish: Clovas liah. Welsh: Heboglys tor llwyd. E.) Dry meadows, pastures, and walks. P. May-Sept.t

(From lepa, a hawk; because that bird, according to Pliny, was wont to quicken his sight with its juice; or rather, perhaps, from the mixture of black and yellow in some species resembling the colour of a hawk's eye; and whence, possibly, the above inference. E.) + This differs from other lactescent plants, being less bitter, and more astringent (It was formerly kept in the shops as an astringent, and designated Auricula muris, from the resemblance of the hairy termination of its leaves to a mouse's ear. E.) It is esteemed hurtful to sheep. An insect of the Cochineal genus (Coccus poloricus) is often found at the roots. Act. Ups. 1752. Goats eat it. Sheep are not fond of it. Horses and cows refuse it. (The different species contributing to the Horologium Flore, or Botanical Clock, (Vid. Anagallis), (as originally described by Linnæus, and since exhibited in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris), we cannot refrain from transcribing the appropriate lines of Charlotte Smith.

"In every copse and shelter'd dell,

Unveil'd to the observant eye,

Are faithful monitors, who tell
How pass the hours and seasons by.
The green-robed children of the Spring
Will mark the periods as they pass,
Mingle with leaves Time's feathered wing,
And bind with flowers his silent glass.
Mark where transparent waters glide,
Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed;
There, cradled on the dimpling tide,
Nymphæa rests her lovely head.

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