THE CHICORY FANUIA. 4.^ 



RATTLESNAKE=WEED. SNAKE PLANTAIN. 

 HAWKWEED. {^PUilc CLX//J.) 



lUcrdciu III 7 'ill OS u in . 



F/iKiw r-/i c'tt (/s : smM; mxmcroufi; growing on slender peduncles in lateral and 

 terminal, spreading, coryndjose panicles, hn'olucrc : cainpanulale, its outer row 

 of bracts abruptly smaller, five-toothed. Aclieiws : oblong, or linear ; not beaked. 

 Leaves : those about the base tufted ; obovate-oblong ; mostly blunt at the apex and 

 narrowed into margined petioles at the base; entire, or glandular, dentate, cil- 

 iate; smooth or slightly hirsute on the under sides of the usually purplc-tintcd 

 veins. S/c'iii-/c'(17ys: one to three, oblanceolate; sessile. S/e/// : one t<» three 

 feet high; slender; glabrous; or with a few hispid hairs below; pur|)lc-tinted. 



Very often throughout the summer we encounter tills plant, ami csiH-cially 

 familiar it looks when blooming in dry woods with Lacinaria scariosa not 

 far distant. It belongs to a genus of many members which bear a rather 

 strong resemblance to each other, but the peculiar veining with purple of 

 this one's large basal leaves is a most pronounced mark of its individual- 

 ity. The country people group it with those plants of supposed virtue in 

 curing the bites of rattlesnakes, and they apply the flat leaf quickly to such 

 wounds. It seems that this superstition appeals mostly to their credence 

 whenever some colouring of a plant is suggestive of the reptile's skin. 



H. Mariamim, Maryland hawkweed, chooses its home in pinc-barrcns 

 and dry woods of mountainous districts, where numerously are seen its 

 small flower-heads growing on slender, somewhat hoary, peduncles. The 

 stem above is paniculately branched, and, although it bears from two lo 

 seven leaves, the principal ones are those of the base. They are ascending 

 and quite hairy underneath, especially when young. As of the preceding 

 species, the pappus is brown. 



H. paiiiciildtum, panicled hawkweed, shows the trait of having large- 

 lanceolate stem-leaves which taper to a point at their bases and bears its 

 numerous small flower-heads on thread-like peduncles in a long and 

 divaricately branched corymbose panicle. Throughout the plant is nearly 

 smooth. 



H. scabrum, rough hawkweed, indeed rough and weedy-looking, has an 

 intensely hairy stem on which are borne large leaves, the upper ones being 

 oval, or ovate, and sessile ; and the lower ones oblong-obovaie and tapering 

 into margined petioles. Its numerous large flower-heads are produced in a 

 racemose panicle and become very conspicuous in fruit when the papjnis is 

 yellowish brown. 



