2?>8 THfi COMPOStTfc FAMILY. 



. 2. H. alplnum, Linn. (fig. 603). Alpine H. Rootstock short and 

 thick, sometimes shortly creeping, but without creeping leafy stems. 

 Leaves chiefly radical, oblong or lanceolate, slightly toothed, green, 

 with a few long hairs. Peduncles or flower-stems about 6 inches high, 

 simple or rarely divided into 2 simple branches ; they usually bear 1, 2, 

 or even 3 small narrow leaves, and a single rather large head of bright 

 yellow flowers. Involucres and peduncles more or less clothed with 

 long rusty hairs ; the outer bracts few and small, as in H. murorum. 



A high alpine or Arctic species, spread over the mountains of 

 northern and Arctic Europe and Asia, and the higher ranges of central 

 and southern Europe. Not uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland, 

 and in the mountains of North Wales, and found also in some parts of 

 north-western England. FL summer. In its ordinary state it is easily 

 recognised, but in the Scotch Highlands a variety occurs with broader 

 leaves, longer flower-stems, and less shaggy involucres with black 

 hairs; this, the H. nigrescent, Willd., is intermediate between H, 

 alpinum and H. murorum. 



3. H. murorum, Linn. (fig. 604). Watt H. The short perennial 

 stock bears a spreading tuft of rather large, ovate or oblong leaves, 

 always stalked, sometimes very obtuse and nearly entire, more fre- 

 quently pointed and coarsely toothed, especially near the base, some- 

 times tapering into the stalk, sometimes more or less cordate at the 

 base, usually slightly hairy, and often of a pale glaucous-green under- 

 neath. Flower-stems erect, 1 to 2 feet high, rarely quite leafless, usually 

 with 1 or 2 leaves near the base like the radical ones but smaller, and 

 1 or 2 smaller narrow ones higher up, but occasionally with several 

 leaves. Flower-heads rather large and yellow, usually 3 or 4 only, but 

 sometimes as many as 20 or 30, in a loose terminal corymb. Involucres 

 and peduncles more or less clothed with black, glandular hairs, inter- 

 mixed with a shorter, rusty-coloured down, whilst the stem is glabrous, 

 or bears in the lower part long, white woolly hairs, which are sometimes 

 very dense close to the stock. Scales of the involucres narrow, the 

 inner ones nearly equal, the outer few and much shorter. 



On banks and old walls, in meadows and rich pastures, bushy places, 

 and open woods, throughout Europe and Russian Asia, from the Mediter- 

 ranean to the Arctic regions. Very common all over Britain. Fl. all 

 summer and early autumn. Exceedingly variable in the shape and teeth 

 of the leaves, in colour and hairiness, in the number of stem- leaves and 

 of flower-heads. In alpine situations the leaves are usually much more 

 entire, often obovate. A marked variety, growing in woods and on 



\banks, with a much more leafy stem, has been distinguished as H. 

 sylvaticum, Sin., or //. vulgatum, Fries., but it is connected with flie 

 more typical form by intermediates which defy classification. From 

 H. sabaudum and H. umbeUatum it may be known by the radical leaves 

 larger than the stem ones, and persistent at the time of flowering, 

 except where they have been accidentally choked by the surrounding 

 herbage, or withered by drought or other accidental causes. 



4. H. cerinthoides, Linn. (fig. 605). Honey wort H. The habit and 

 radical leaves are those of the mountain varieties of H. murorum, but 

 the whole plant is still more glaucous, and has generally more of the 

 woolly hairs, especially about the stock. The flower-stems bear but 

 few rather large flowers, and 1 or 2 leaves usually entire, and always 



