148 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



SPECIES IL— LACTUCA SCARIOLA. Linn. 

 Plate DCCCVL 

 Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Ilelv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCCXXI. Figs. 1, 2. 



Stem slightly scabrous with small prickles at the base, or 

 neariy smooth. E-adical leaves oblong, sinuate-pinnatifid ; lower 

 stem-leaves ascending, oblong, runcinate-pinnatifid, sub-acute ; the 

 upper ones usually undivided ; all (except the lowest) sagittate- 

 amplexicaul, with acute spreading auricles (not decurrent), 

 spinous- denticulate on the margins, spiny ori" the midrib beneath. 

 Panicle with the branches rather elongate, ascending. Achenes 

 greyish-olive, elliptical-ovoid, narrowly bordered, scabrous at the 

 top ; beak white, as long as the achene. 



In waste places. Rare. Plentiful near Southend, Essex ; 

 sparingly about Plumstead, Kent ; and I have specimens from 

 near Longden, Worcestershire, collected by Mr. T. Westcombe. 

 It occurs also in Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, and Cambridgeshire ; 

 but I have not seen specimens from these counties. 



England. Biennial or annual. Late Summer 

 and Autumn. 



This plant bears some resemblance to L. virosa, which is com- 

 bined with it by Mr. Bentham : it is, however, much more nearly 

 allied to L. saligna than to the preceding species. The stem is 

 usually shorter than that of L. virosa, rarely exceeding 3 feet in 

 height, much less prickly, and that only towards the base, the leaves 

 and branches ascending in an angle of about forty-iive degrees ; the 

 segments of the leaves are longer, more acute, and more curved 

 backwards than in the pinnatifid forms of L. virosa ; the auricles are 

 more acute, and not bent round and applied to the stem, as is the 

 case (at least in the lower and intermediate leaves) in that species ; 

 the anthodes are smaller ; the achenes narrower, more attenuated 

 below, less compressed, and with narrower margins, and their colour, 

 instead of being nearly black, is of an olive-grey ; the plant is of a 

 deeper green, and less glaucous. 



In L. Scariola a comparatively small number of seeds germinate 

 in autumn, the greater number not till the succeeding spring. This 

 is the case at Southend, where L. virosa appears to be invariably 

 biennial, L. Scariola very partially so, and L. saligna truly annual. 

 Of course, in warmer localities the two latter may be more fre- 

 quently biennial, and in colder ones L. virosa may become annual. 



Frickly Lettuce. 



French, Laitue Sauvage. German, Wilder Lattich. 



