160 WILD FLOWERS. 



ruddy fruits. The flowers look gay and bril- 

 liant, for autumn flowers are mostly yellow, and 

 tliey seem to cluster in such abundavice that 

 none would suspect that they are far fewer in 

 variety than in the preceding months. Per- 

 haps, twice the number of species of wild 

 flowers might be found by the botanist dur- 

 ing the month of June than he could find 

 now ; and though many summer blossoms still 

 linger, yet those strictly peculiar to August 

 are comparatively so few that we can but re- 

 mark that the year is making rapid progress to 

 its close. 



One of the tribes of the plants most likely to 

 attract our eye during this month, by the great 

 number of its flowers, is the hawkweed. They 

 form a family of plants very puzzling to the 

 botanist, by the resemblance of the species to 

 each other. The hawkweeds maybe described 

 generally as flowers shaped like the dandelion, 

 their leaves are also often similar in form, but the 

 whole structure of the flower is Kghter and more 

 delicate. Some of the blossoms are very small, 

 others as large as a marigold, and they vary in 

 all shades of yellow, from a deep bright orange 

 colour to the pale lemon tint which distinguishes 

 one of our commonest and prettiest kinds. 

 This species is the mouse-ear hawkweed, (Hie- 

 racium piloseUa,) and it may at once be known 

 from the others by its paler hue, scarcely deeper 

 than that of the primrose, and also by its creeping 

 scions. It grows on dry pastures, and unless 



