266 FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



leaves are cut into very narrow segments which are either entire 

 or pinnately lobed. The flowers are in dense, terminal heads, 

 surrounded by a whorl of short bracts, and intermixed with the 

 little, narrow scales of the receptacle, the outer flowers of each head 

 being larger than the others, and very irregular. This plant flowers 

 during July and August. 



Of the Compositce we shall first take the Hairy Hawkbit {Leon- 

 todon hirtus), which is very common on moors in most parts of Great 

 Britain, flowering during July and August. Although known as 

 the Hairy Hawkbit, this plant is sometimes quite smooth ; more 

 commonly, however, the leaves and peduncles are clothed with 

 thinly-scattered, stiff, forked hairs. Its leaves are all radical, either 

 oblong or very narrow, with coarsely-toothed or wavy margins. 

 The flower-heads are solitary, on peduncles from three to eight 

 inches long, and of a bright yellow colour. Each head is sur- 

 rounded by a whorl of about a dozen green, smooth bracts, outside 

 which are several shorter ones. All the florets are strap-shaped 

 and perfect ; and the fruits, which taper at the top, are mostly 

 crowned by a pappus of feathery hairs as long as the achene itself, 

 with a few shorter ones outside. This species appears on Plate VI, 

 Fig. 4. 



We have next to note a few thistles that are more or less common 

 on downs and moors, the first being the Musk Thistle [Carduus 

 nutans), common in the South of England, but much less frequent 

 in the North. It is a stout plant, usually scantily covered with a 

 loose, cottony down, with a furrowed stem from one to three feet 

 high. The leaves are very deeply di\aded pinnately, very prickly, 

 and extend down the stem in the form of narrow, prickly wings. 

 The flower-heads are very large, of a purple or crimson colour, 

 drooping, usually solitary, but sometimes in loose clusters of from 

 two to four. Each head is surrounded by numerous very narrow, 

 stiff bracts, more or less covered with cottony down. All of these 

 terminate in a sharp prickle which is erect on the inner bracts, but 

 spreading or turned backward in the case of the outer ones. This 

 thistle may be seen in flower from May to October. It appears on 

 Plate VI, Fig. 1. 



The next species — the Dwarf Thistle {Carduus acaulis) — is 

 found only in the southern and midland counties of England, but 

 is very common on some of the elevated do^ns of the South-East, 

 especially on chalky soils. It has a very thick and hard rootstock, 

 but hardly any trace of a stem, so that its spreading tuft of radical 



