liquid extract.

Because of its tendency to provoke involuntary urination at night,
the Dandelion has acquired a vulgar suggestive appellation which
expresses this fact in most homey terms: _quasi herba lectiminga,
et urinaria dicitur_: and this not only in our vernacular, but in most
of the European tongues: _quia plus lotii in vesicam derivat quam
puerulis retineatur proesertim inter dormiendum, eoque tunc
imprudentes et inviti stragula permingunt_.

At Gottingen, the roots are roasted and used instead of coffee by
the poorer folk; and in Derbyshire the juice of the stalk is applied
to remove warts. The flower of the Dandelion when fully blown is
named Priest's Crown (_Caput monachi_), from the resemblance
of its naked receptacle after the winged seeds have been all blown
away, to the smooth shorn head of a Roman [152] cleric. So
Hurdis sings in his poem _The Village Curate_:--

"The Dandelion this:
A college youth that flashes for a day
All gold: anon he doffs his gaudy suit,
Touched by the magic hand of Bishop grave,
And all at once by commutation strange
Becomes a reverend priest: and then how sleek!
How full of grace! with silvery wig at first
So nicely trimmed, which presently grows bald.
But let me tell you, in the pompous globe
Which rounds the Dandelion's head is fitly couched
Divinity most rare."

Boys gather the flower when ripe, and blow away the hall of its
silky seed vessels at the crown, to learn the time of day, thus
sportively making:--

"Dandelion with globe of down
The school-boy's clock in every town."

DATE.

Dates are the most wholesome and nourishing of all our imported
fruits. Children especially appreciate their luscious sweetness, as
afforded by an abundant sugar which is easily digested, and which
quickly repairs waste of heat and fat. With such a view, likewise,
doctors now advise dates for consumptive patients; also because
they soothe an irritable chest, and promote expectoration; whilst,
furthermore, they prevent costiveness. Dates are the fruit of the
Date palm (_Phoenix dactylifera_), or, Tree of Life.

In old English Bibles of the sixteenth century, the name Date-tree
is constantly given to the Palm, and the fruit thereof was the first
found by the Israelites when wandering in the Wilderness.

Oriental writers have attributed to this tree a certain semi-human
consciousness. The name _Phoenix_ was [153] bestowed on