The different kinds or varieties of lettuce are extremely numerous: but those best known are the _cos lettuce_, and _cabbage lettuce_, the former having upright leaves, and the latter having its leaves folded over each other like those of a cabbage. Their culture is very simple. The seeds are sown at various seasons of the year, that the plants may be ready, in succession, for the table. After a while, they are planted out from the seed-bed into another part of the garden, at a certain distance from each other, to allow of room for their expansion and growth. When the cos lettuces have attained a sufficient size, their leaves are tied together with strings of matting, to blanch them for use. From seeds that are sown towards the end of summer, lettuces may, with care, be obtained in perfection during the ensuing winter and spring. Lettuces have an odour somewhat resembling that of opium; and they also possess somewhat similar narcotic properties, which reside in the milky juice. The properties of this vegetable as a salad, if eaten without oil, are considered to be emollient, cooling, and wholesome. 214. _ENDIVE_ (Cichorium endivia) _is a common vegetable in kitchen gardens, having curled or crisped leaves._ We are supposed to have been originally indebted to the East Indies for this useful winter salad. It is chiefly cultivated in the south of England; being sown generally about June or July, and afterwards planted out, like lettuce. The chief excellence of endive consists in the whiteness of its inner leaves. It is, therefore, adviseable, either to cover the plants with flower-pots, or, when full grown, to tie them loosely together, for two or three weeks. By so doing, they will become perfectly blanched; and, in winter, they may be preserved, either by covering them with straw and mats, or by putting them in sand in a dry cellar. The French consume a great quantity of endive at their tables. They either eat it raw in salads, boiled in ragouts, fried with roast meat, or as a pickle. It is a wholesome vegetable which seldom disagrees with the stomach. SUPERFLUA. 215. _CAMOMILE_ (Anthemis nobilis) _is a well-known plant, the dried daisy-like flowers of which are frequently used in medicine._ The principal use to which camomile _flowers_ are applied is to excite vomiting, and promote the operation of emetics. They have likewise occasionally been substituted for Peruvian bark, in the case of intermittent fevers or agues, particularly on the Continent, but not with much success; and are used as a valuable stomachic. Both the _leaves_ and flowers are employed in fomentations and poultices. They each, but particularly the flowers, have a powerful, though not an unpleasant smell, and a bitter taste. They are administered in substance, as a powder or electuary, in infusion as tea, in decoction or extract, or in the form of an essential oil obtained by distillation.