COMMON MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 



Hieracium Filosella. 



Class Syxgenesia. Order ^qctalis, Nat. Ord. CoLUPOSiTiE. 

 CoMPOu>'D Flowers. 



The Hawkweed family is one of the most 

 perplexing, not only to the unpractised botanist, 

 but also to those who have studied plants long 

 and well. Sir W. Hooker calls it a " trouble- 

 some genus/' and all who have attempted to 

 identify its species have found it so. A great 

 difference of opinion exists among scientific 

 men as to the number of species, some con- 

 sidering certain points in various kinds of a 

 permanent nature, others as only occasional. 

 All the Hawkweeds, like the Mouse-Ear, have 

 yellow flowers, but this species is readily dis- 

 tinguished from the rest by its creeping shoots, 

 wliicli run over or just beneath the sm^face 

 of the soil. The blossoms are of a bright 

 lemon colour, and in most of them the outer 

 florets are striped with red beneath ; and as the 

 young unclosed flovv'er-buds often exhibit the 

 same bright colour, this plant in its different 

 stages of growth is exceedingly varied and 



