. The American flora : or history of plants and wild flowers : containing their scientific and general description, natural history, chemical and medical properties, mode of culture, propagation , &c., designed as a book of reference for botanists, physicians, florists, gardeners, students, erennial and spin-dle-shaped, wliich, with the whole plant, abounds with a milky juice; is simple, colored, shining, and unifloral; the leavesare all radical and cut in a peculiar way, forming a good example ofwhat botanists call runcinata; the seeds, on approaching to maturity,become
. The American flora : or history of plants and wild flowers : containing their scientific and general description, natural history, chemical and medical properties, mode of culture, propagation , &c., designed as a book of reference for botanists, physicians, florists, gardeners, students, erennial and spin-dle-shaped, wliich, with the whole plant, abounds with a milky juice; is simple, colored, shining, and unifloral; the leavesare all radical and cut in a peculiar way, forming a good example ofwhat botanists call runcinata; the seeds, on approaching to maturity,become crowned with a fine downy feather, disposed in a sphericalshape. The young leaves of this plant are very much used in thespring as a pot-herb; in some parts of Europe the roots are roastedand substituted for coffee by the poorer inhabitants, who find tliat aninfusion prepared in this way can hardly be distinguished from that ofthe coffee-berry. The root, when dry, is very much wrinkled, shrunk,and brittle, and on being broken presents a shining resinous fracture ;it has a sweetish bitter, herbaceous taste, and yields its medical prop-erties to boiling water. Medical Properties and Uses. Dandelion is generally considered by medical writers as the most active and efficacious of th 138 .^?. n NAT. ORDER. COMPOSITE. ] 39 lactescent plants; the expressed juice is bitter and somewhat acrid;the root, however, is still more bitter, and possesses greater medicinalpower than any other part of the plant. Taraxacum has long been inrepute as a mild detergent and aperient; it is also diuretic and tonic,and has a direct action upon the liver and kidneys, exciting them whenlanguid, to action. It is most applicable to liejaatic diseases, and de-rangement of the digestive organs generally. In chronic inflammatjonsof the liver and spleen, in cases of deficient biliary secictions, and indropsical affections of the abdominal viscera, it is capable of beingvery beneficial if properly applied; from e
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