C 429 ]
9* T U S S I L A G O Farfara.
Colts-foot.
S Y N G E N E S I A Polygamia-fuperflua.
G en. C har. Receptacle naked. Down Ample. Calyx-
Jcales equal, as long as the difk, fomewhat membranous.
S p e c . Char. Stalk Angle-flowered, clothed with imbricated
fcales. Leaves heart-fhaped, angulated
and toothed.
S y n . Tuflilago Farfara. Linn. Sp. PI. 1214. Hudf. FI.
An. 364. Ttrith. Rot. Arr. 904. ed. 3. v. 3. 719.
Relb. Cant. 314. Sibth. Ox. 261. Curt. Lond.
fafc. 2. t. 60.
Tuflilago. Rail Syn. 173.
C o m m o n on moift marley and calcareous ground, flowering
in March or April, foon after which the leaves appear,
and continue through the fummer.
R o ot perennial, creeping horizontally. Stalks e re ft, Ample,
leaflets, but clothed with lanceolate, imbricated, clofe-prefled
fcales. Flowers terminal, folitary, drooping before they expand,
then ere£t, lemon-coloured, not inelegant, being more confpicu-
ous on account o f their radiated form than thofe o f many other
fpecies. T h e calyx conflfts o f feveral Ample parallel linear
equal fcales, accompanied at the bafe by a few fcattered fcales
like thofe on the ftalk, and which cannot'be conAdered as belonging
to the calyx itfelf. Flowers o f the difk tubular and
hermaphrodite ; thofe o f the radius numerous, ligulate and
female. T h e feeds o f both are fo generally barren, that we
are at a lofs to decide upon Dr. Stokes’s remark, in the fecond
edition o f Withering, that thofe o f the difk only .are fo ; but,
as he juftly obferves, thofe o f the radius only have the cloven
taper ftigma, which in this tribe indicates a fertile floret, and
w e therefore do not doubt his accuracy in the other refpeft.
T h e leaves grow on long foot-Italics, cluttered, from fhort
lateral branches, and are heart-fhaped, acute, angular and
fharply toothed, very fmooth above, cottony and veiny beneath.
T h e y are when young rolled back, and in that ftate
thickly clothed with very white cotton, as is the ftalk alfo.
T h is cotton has been ufed for tinder and flmilar purpofes.
T h e leaves are bitterifh, mucilaginous, and aftringent, and are
faid to be good for the lungs, either taken in an infufion or
fmoked as tobacco. See Ra y and Withering. Hence the
generic name, from TuJJis a cough.