172 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



paucity and shortness of the hairs at the tips of the florets. The 

 leaves are of a deeper green than in the three last species. 



I am unacquainted with the var. 3 insigne of Professor Babing- 

 ton's Manual, unless it be merely a luxuriant state of the ordinary 

 form, such as I have gathered on Loch-na-gar ; but that has the 

 leaves obovate-spathulate. 



I have adopted the name H. melanocephalum (Tausch), 

 which doubtless belongs to this form, instead of restricting the 

 name of H. alpinum to this aberrant member of the group. There 

 is no custom which has introduced greater confusion than that of 

 applying tlie name properly belonging to a whole series of forms 

 to one of its parts only — where this has been done, and generally 

 received by botanists, of course such names ought to be retained, as 

 they do not lead to confusion ; but, in the present case, it is only two 

 or three British authors w^ho use H. alpinum in the sense intended 

 by Mr. Backhouse ; so that their H. alpinum does not represent the 

 II. alpinum of continental authors. 



Alpine Haiolaceed. 



SFECIES VII.— HIERACIUM GRACILENTUM. Bach 



Plate DCCCXXVIII. 



Back Mod. Hier. p. 2-t. Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. v. p. 201. Hook. k. Am. Brit. FL 

 ed. viii. p. 219. 



Stem usually simple, rather thickly clothed with stellate down 

 and black gland-tipped hairs, sparingly intermixed with long black- 

 based simple hairs. Radical leaves obovate-spathulate or oblanceo- 

 late-spathulate, abruptly attenuated into the petiole, obtuse; inner 

 ones narrower and sub-acute ; all remotely denticulate or serrate- 

 dentate, rarely coarsely toothed, sub-glabrous or hairy on the mar- 

 gins and beneath, and sometimes sparingly so even above ; stem- 

 leaves 2 to 4, large ; lower one attenuated into a petiole ; the 

 uppermost one strapshaped, sessile. Anthodes solitary, or rarely 

 2 or 3 in a coi'ymb, ovoid in bud. Periclinc rouuded at the 

 base. Phyllaries broad, acute, nearly black, densely clothed with 

 rather short black and black-based simple hairs, interspersed with 

 short black gland-tipped hairs ; inner ones adj^ressed, the outer 

 more or less lax. Plorets nearly or quite glabrous externally, 

 slightly pilose at the tips. Styles livid-yellow. Plant green. 



Granitic and porphyritic cliffs at an elevation of 2,000 to 4,000 

 feet. I have collected this species only on Loch-na-gar; but it 

 occurs also on Ben-na-bourd, Cairntowl, and in Canlochen Glen. 



Scotland. Perennial. Autumn. 



