162 COMPOSITE. 



The Strong-scented Lettuce (L. virosa), grows in basaltic 

 rock near Edinburgh. It has a finely-toothed oval leaf, a 

 fetid smell, and clusters of pale yellow flowers. The plant is 

 bitter to the taste, and has poisonous qualities. 



The Prickly Lettuce (L. scariola), carries its leaves perpen- 

 dicular, whilst the Strong-scented Lettuce holds its leaves 

 horizontally. 



The Least Lettuce (L. saligna), has pinnate leaves. 



The Garden Lettuce is quite a different species ; it is not 

 here, as in the case of the Wild Celery, that cultivation makes 

 all the difference between the poisonous and the wholesome plant. 



The Smooth Hawk's-beard (Crepis virens), is my only species 

 of that family. Its root-leaves are runcinate ; the stem-leaves 

 lanceolate and toothed, without footstalks. It grows on waste 

 places, and has very small yellow flowers. The stem is much 

 branched. 



There are a Hough Hawk's-beard, with a downy involucre ; 

 and a Stinking Hawk's-beard, with hairy pinnate leaves, smell- 

 ing like bitter almonds. These two inhabit chalky ground. 



The Small-flowered Hawk's-beard (C. pulchra), is an elegant 

 plant, having a corymb of small yellow flowers, and root-leaves 

 oblong, while the stem-leaves are arrow-shaped. 



The Hawkweed family is the largest in the Strap-shaped 

 group. There was a wide-spread superstition in old times that 

 the hawk fed its young ones on these plants, and that the birds 

 owe their keenness of vision to them. In France, Germany, 

 and Italy they are called Hawk's-plants. 



We have two species, with naked stems springing from the 

 root, and bearing a single flower. One of these is the pretty 

 Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella), that covers large 

 plots in hedgebanks with its creeping stems, pale, oval, woolly 

 leaves, and lemon flowers lined with crimson. It is common 

 all over Britain. My specimens are from Yorkshire. 



The Alpine Hawkweed (H. alpinum), varies in having a 

 golden bloom. 



