COMPOSITE. 329 



higli, usually glabrous or nearly so. Leaves linear or lanceolate, tootlied 

 or pinimtifid, with triangular or narrow, but short lobes ; the radical ones 

 stalked, the upper ones clasping the stem by pointed, spreading auricles. 

 Flower-heads small, in loose, often leafy panicles. Involucres often 

 shghtly hispid, and become conical after flowering ; the outer bracts narrow- 

 linear, and rather close. Achenes narrow-oblong, very slightly contracted 

 at the top, but not beaked, and generally shorter than the pappus, although 

 there are frequently in the same head a few much longer than the rest, and 

 longer than •their own pappus. 



In pastures, on dry banks, roadsides, and waste places, tlu-oughout 

 western and central Europe, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean ; fur- 

 ther east apparently replaced by the true C. tectorum. One of the com- 

 monest of the British Ligulates. Fl. the whole summer and autumn. It 

 varies much in stature and in the size and number of the flower-heads, but 

 they are always smaller than in any other British species. 



4. Xlougli Crepis. Crepis biennis, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 149, not good.) 



A taller and stouter plant than the smooth C., more frequently bieimial, 

 less branched from the base, but forming a broad, terminal corymb of 

 rather larger flower-heads ; the leaves more or less rough with short, stiS" 

 hairs ; and the outer bracts of the involucre broader, with a whitish, mem- 

 branous edge. In this respect it resembles the larger forms of the heaked C, 

 but the achenes have the ribs much smoother, and although narrowed at 

 the top, they do not bear the long, slender beak of tliat species. 



In similar situations with the three last, dispersed over temperate Europe, 

 from Sweden to the Mediterranean. Bare in Britain ; its precise geogra- 

 phical limits are indeed not well ascertained, as it is often confounded with 

 the common smooth C. or with the bealced C, but I have seen true speci-' 

 mens from the central and eastern counties of England, Fl. summer. 



5. IXa'wk'^eed Crepis. Crepis hieracioides, Jacq. 

 (C. succistefolia, Brit. Fl. Hieracium molle, Eng. Bot. t. 2210.) 



Like the marsh C, this has much the habit of a Sawkweed, but the 

 pappus is white and soft, as in Crepis. It is an erect, scarcely branched 

 perennial, a foot high or rather more, glabrous or shghtly hairy. Leaves 

 entire or with a few minute teeth ; the radical and lower ones obovate- 

 oblong, on long stalks ; the upper ones few, narrow, and clasping the stem. 

 Flower-heads few, in a loose corymb, like those of the marsh C, but the 

 achenes are finely striate, with about 20 ribs. 



In meadows and pastures, chiefly in mountain districts, all across central 

 Europe, from the Pyrenees to the Eussian frontier, not extending into 

 Scandinavia. In Britain, in a few localities in southern Scotland and 

 northern England. Fl. summer and autumn. 



6. Marsh Crepis. Crepis palndosa, Moench. 

 {Hieracium, Eng. Bot. t. 1094.) 

 This species has almost as much the habit and characters of Uawkweed, 

 with which Linnaeus associated it, as of Crepis, to which it is referred by 

 modern botanists. It is an erect, scarcely branched perennial, but of short 

 dm-ation, and nearly glabrous, 1 to 2 feet high. Eadical leaves ovate, 

 coarsely toothed, with a few small lobes along the stalk ; the stem-leaves 



2 P 2 



