Microseris. | COMPOSITE. 385 
juice milky. Leaves all radical, very variable in size, 2-10 in. long, 
narrow-linear to lanceolate, flaccid, entire or irregularly toothed or 
pinnatifid; the lobes narrow, distant, spreading. Scapes usually 
exceeding the leaves, rarely shorter, sometimes puberulous above. 
Heads solitary, 4-3 in. long; involucral bracts linear, acute, rather 
fleshy, with membranous borders. Florets longer than the invo- 
lucre. Achenes linear, deeply grooved. Pappus - bristles slightly 
dilated below, serrulate or shortly plumose.— Fl. Tasm. i. 226, 
t. 66; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 164; Benth. Fl. Austral. ii. 676; Kirk, 
Students’ Fl. 356. M. pygmea, Raoul, Choix, 45 (not of Hook. 
and Arn.). Scorzonera scapigera, Forst. Proir. 5384; A. Cunn. 
Precur. n. 430. 
NortTH AND SoutH IsLANDS: From the Middle Waikato and Rotorua south- 
wards ; plentiful. Sea-level to 4000 ft. December—February. 
23. PICRIS, Linn. 
Erect branched hispid herbs with milky juice. Leaves alternate 
‘or radical, entire or toothed or pinnatifid. Heads corymbose, yel- 
low, homogamous. Involucre urceolate or campanulate, inner 
bracts in 1 series, subequal; outer in several series, narrow, her- 
baceous; or the outermost broad and foliaceous. Receptacle flat, 
naked. Florets all ligulate. Anthers sagittate at the base, acute or 
setaceous. Achenes linear or oblong, more or less incurved, sub- 
terete or angled, 5-10-ribbed with the ribs transversely rugose, 
narrowed above or distinctly beaked. Pappus copious, of 2 
series of soft hairs; inner broad at the base, plumose; outer fewer 
slender. 
Species about 24, mainly natives of Europe and temperate Asia, the New 
Zealand species widely spread in most temperate and subtropical countries. 
1. P. hieracioides, Linn. Sp. Plant. 792.—A biennial herb 
1-3 ft. high, more or less hispid with simple or barbed hairs ; stem 
corymbosely branched above. Leaves 3-6in. long, linear-oblong, 
lanceolate or linear, sinuate-toothed, the lower ones tapering into 
a petiole, the upper smaller and narrower, sessile, stem-clasping. 
Peduncles long, slender. Heads 3-lin. diam.; involucral bracts 
hispid and pubescent. Achenes red-brown, narrow-ellipsoid, taper- 
ing into a short beak, very strongly transversely ribbed. Pappus- 
hairs deciduous, soft, white, plumose.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 482 ; 
Faoul, Choiz, 45; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 151; Handb. N.Z. 
Fl. 165; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 678; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 367. 
P. attenuata, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 433. 
Norrx Istanp: Not uncommon from the North Cape to the Upper Thames 
and Waikato. Sour Istanp: Nelson—Foxhill, 7. F.C. Canterbury—Broken 
River basin, T. Ff. C. Sea-level to 2500 ft. August-December. 
13—Fl. 
