HAWKBIT LETTUCE. 161 



The Dandelion Hawkbit is also single-flowered, but its leaves 

 are smooth. 



The Cat's-ear is the next family. The Long-rooted species 

 is common in our pastures, flowering early in the autumn. 

 The leaves are runcinate that is, the lobes are pointed and 

 turned back, and the stems are branched and smooth. The 

 flower is large, and bright yellow (Hypochceris radicata). 



The Spotted Cat's-ear has its stem solitary, and its leaves 

 rough, and blotched with purple ; and the smooth Cat's-ear is 

 without hairs, and the stem branched and leafy. 



The Hawkbits and Cat's-ear are all small plants, growing 

 less than a foot high. 



The Sow Thistle family, the next in succession, are of a 

 much higher growth. 



The common Sow Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus), a troublesome 

 garden weed, is stout, succulent, and milky. The heads grow 

 in clusters, and the involucres are smooth. The leaves are 

 runcinate, with round ears close to the stem. We used to 

 seek it diligently as rabbit food. 



The Corn Sow Thistle (S. arvensis), is a stately plant, 

 growing six feet high, and lifting its clusters of large golden 

 flowers above the ripe corn. The stem-leaves are oblong and 

 notched, the lower ones pinnatifid. This is as showy a plant 

 as the class contains, if we except its brother, the rare Marsh 

 Sow Thistle, which grows to a still greater height, having the 

 leaves arrow-shaped at the base. 



In mountainous districts a Blue Sow Thistle is found, with a 

 brown involucre, I have no specimen of it. 



One of the Lettuce family is in my hands, the common Wall 

 Lettuce (Lactuca muralis). It is a tall slender plant, growing 

 in groves and hedges. The leaves are strongly lobed and 

 runcinate, and often much tinged with purple. It flowers in a 

 scattered panicle, each stalk being placed at right angles from 

 that from which it springs. The flowers are formed of five 

 pale yellow florets. 



M 



