WASTES AND WAYSIDES IN SUMMER 



181 



that some botanists divide the Brilisli membex's into no less than 

 thu-ty-three species. 



All the plants of tlie group agree in the following particulars : — 

 They have a milky sap. The leaves are nearly all radical. The 

 flower-heads are either yellow or orange, surrounded by several 

 rows of overlapping bracts. The receptacle is pitted. The fruit 

 is not beaked, and its 

 pajipus consists of a 

 single row of rigid, 

 brittle, brownish hairs, 

 which are simple and of 

 unequal lengths. 



One species at least 

 is a common wayside 

 flower, and this is the 

 Shrubby Hawkweed [H. 

 borecde). It grows from 

 two to four feet high, 

 and bears a corymb of 

 many yellow heads, from 

 July to Sejitember. Its 

 stem is hairy below, 

 downy w i t h fine 

 branched hairs above, 

 and bears rigid, erect 

 branches which are leafy, 

 and often of a reddish 

 colom-. This species has 

 no radical leaves. The 

 stem leaves are ovate or 

 lanceolate and toothed, 

 the upper ones broad and 

 slightly clasping the 



stem. The peduncle is scaly or woolly, and tlie involucre bracts 

 are of a blackish green colour. 



The Nij^plewort {Lapsana cmmmmis) is another very common 

 Composite of waysides and wastes. Its stem is erect, from one to 

 two feet high, branched, armed with scanty stiif hairs below, and 

 smooth above. The leaves are thin and usually haiiy, the lower 

 ones ovate, pinnatiHd or coarsely-toothed, with a few smaller 

 lobes along the stalks, and the upper ones small, and entire or 



THE Smooth IIawk's-beard. 



