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LAPSANA communis.
Nipple-wort.
SYNGENESIA Polygamia-aqual'is.
G en. Char. Receptacle naked. Cal. fcaly at the
bafe; its inner leaves equal, channelled. Seeds
without wing or down.
Spec. Char. Calyx when in fruit angular. Stem
panicled. Flower-ftalks thread-fhaped.
Syn . Lapfana communis. Linn. Sp. PI. 1141. Sm.
Fl. Brit. 842. Hudf. 347. With. 693. Hull. 178.
Relh. 301. Sibth. 242. Abbot. 173. Curt. Lond.
fafe. 1. t. 59. Dick/. H. Sicc.fafc. 11, 12.
Lampfana. Raii Syn. 173.
F r e q u e n t in wafte as well as cultivated ground, and
fometimes a troublefome weed, as the feeds lie long in the
earth, fpringing up from time to time occafionally, like thofe
of poppies. It flowers in June or July.
Root annual, fibrous. Stem upright, near three feet high,
roundifli, furrowed, panicled, leafy, fcarcely rough or hairy.
Leaves foft and flaccid, a little hairy, flightly toothed; the
radical ones lyrate; the reft ovate, alternate, pointed. Flower-
ftalks alternate, erebt, round, flender, fmooth, with a little
pointed brabtea at the bafe of each. Flowers fmaller than in
moft of our Syngenefious plants, bright-yellow. Calyx
fmooth, hard, rigid, permanent, and clofed about the feeds,
which are few, angular, entirely deftitute of down or feather
of any kind.
The Englilh name originates in an old report, of Pruflian
origin and perhaps little to be trufted, that the herb cures fore,
breafts. See Gerarde’s Herbal.