02 TIIK JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



forms, but not uniformly. Except in the case of plants with yellow 

 or externally-striped florets, the colour of the ligules is termed 

 "purple," winch seems to indicate that the diagnoses were drawn up 

 from dried material, the living flowers being certainly never purple. 



Of the six groups the first — aurantiacum proper— is characterized 

 by rather narrow phyllaries, short acladium, "purple" flowers, very 

 pilose stem, and bright green or subglaucescent foliage. It contains 

 eight subspecies, of which the third, H. aurantiacwm L.,setisu stricto, 

 clearly coincides with the narrow-leaved English garden-plant. This 

 is evident not only from the description, but from the exsiccata sent 

 out by the authors, which show leafy stolons freely produced at the 

 time of flowering. A number of varieties of this subspecies are dis- 

 tinguished, of which our plant usually agrees best with var. setulosum, 

 notable for the long hairs of its leaves. This subspecies is the most 

 widely distributed form of the aggregate species, occurring throughout 

 Central Europe and also in Scandinavia. 



The broad-leaved British plant cannot be so surely identified with 

 any of Naegeli and Peter's forms, but appears to be referable to the 

 eighth and last subspecies {claropurpureum) of their first group 

 aurantiacum. This subspecies, a native of Eastern Switzerland, is 

 distinguishable by its partly underground stolons, its elliptical leaves 

 with abundant stiff hairs above, its light-edged phyllaries, and its 

 " clear purple " flowers. It seems to have been described from a 

 cultivated plant, and no exsiccata for it are cited by the authors. 

 Another subspecies of Eastern Switzerland, spanochcetium, forming 

 the collaborators' third group, is allied to this plant, and appears 

 separable from subsp. claropurpureum only by its less hairy stem, 

 more glaucous leaves, fewer but larger heads, and somewhat 'broader 

 phyllaries. Flowering exsiccata of subsp. spanochcetium in Herb. 

 Mus. Brit, show no stolons and bear a considerable likeness to Don's 

 Scotch specimen. 



It may be concluded, therefore, that, of the two forms of H. 

 aurantiacum known in Britain, one is referable to the Linnean type 

 as defined by Naegeli and Peter, while the other is probably identical 

 with their subspecies claropurpureum, though also resembling sub- 

 species spanochcetium. Naegeli and Peter's' nomenclature may con- 

 sequently be followed for the two British plants if they are regarded 

 as belonging to one species. 



The differences of the two British forms, however, are so marked 

 that, treating them alone, it does not seem possible to regard them 

 as conspecific, especially when the average standard of Rieracium- 

 species is remembered. Unfortunately I have never met with any 

 wild forms of R. aurantiacum in Central Europe, and am thus the 

 less able to judge whether a complete series of intermediate states 

 between the different subspecies is likely to exist, so that no clear 

 dividing-line is practicable. But the points of distinction between 

 our two plants are so obvious, in spite of the dark hair-clothing of 

 the inflorescence and the reddish flowers that are seen in both of 

 them, that, after studying Naegeli and Peter's diagnoses, one seems 

 warranted in doubting whether the basis of their grouping is suffi- 

 ciently broad and whether sufficient importance is allowed to the 





