Sm SYNGENESIA— POLYGAM.-.^QU. Hieracium. 



2. H. PUosella, Common Mouse-ear Hawkweed. 



Leaves elliptical, entire; cottony beneath. Scions creep- 

 ing. Stalks single-flowered, naked. 



H. Pilosella. Linn. Sp. PL 1 1 25. Willd. v, 3. 1563. Fl. Br. 82S. 

 Engl. Bot. v.\6.t.\ 093. Curt. Lond.fasc. 4. t.54. Hook. Scot. 

 229. Dreves Bilderb.t.\7. FL Dan. t. \[\0. BulL Fr. t.279. 



H. n. 55. HalLHist.vA.23. 



Pilosella. Matth. Valgr. v, 2. 316./. Camer. Epit. 708. /. Lob, 

 Ic. 479. f. 



P. repens. Raii Syn. 1 70. Ger. Em. 638./. 



P. major. F^ichs, Hist.GOo.f. Bod. Pempt. 67. J. Dalech. Hist, 

 1098./. 



Auricula muris minor. Trag. Hist. 278./. 



Common Mouse-ear. Petiv. H. Brit. ^ 11./. 1. 



In dry open pastures, and on banks, park walls, cottage roofs, &c., 

 common . 



Perennial. May — July. 



Root rather woody, throwing out many long, creeping, leafy scions. 

 Leaves spreading, elliptic-oblong, tapering at the base, entire j 

 numerous at the root j smaller and alternate on the scions j 

 their upper surface green and smooth, besprinkled with long 

 ,coarse hairs, such as are found on every part of the herbage ; 

 'their backs densely covered with white cottony pubescence. 

 After drying these hairs become tawny. Stalks generally soli- 

 tary, erect, a finger's length, round, downy and hairy, destitute 

 of leaves and bracteas, each bearing a solitary^o2i?er, of a most 

 elegant pale lemon-colour, with a red central stripe at the back 

 of each ^ore^. Cal. rough with black hairs, intermixed with white 

 ones -J its inner scales membranous. Seed-down rough with very 

 minute teeth. The receptacle is clothed with short bristles, a 

 slight deviation from the proper generic character, of which there 

 are other examples. 



Old authors esteem the Pilosella powerfully astringent, and assert 

 it to be noxious, on that account, to sheep, while they recom- 

 mend it for the cure of wounds, and of internal weaknesses. 

 We might place some confidence in their prescriptions, if they 

 did not at the same time declare that the juice of the herb, used 

 for tempering steel, renders it capable of cutting stone and iron, 

 such a property, as founded on the astringency of the herb, 

 being purely hypothetical, if not evidently incredible. 



** Stalk radical, naked, many-jlo'wered. 



3. H. djfbifim. Branching Mouse-ear Hawkweed. 



Leaves elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, nearly entire, besprinkled 

 with coarse hairs; rather glaucous beneath. Scions 



