﻿•hi.-. 



NOTES ON BEITISB HIERACIA. 

 By Frederick J. Hanbury, F.L.S. 

 The tentative list of British Hieracia issued with the July 

 number, as the title implies, must not be regarded as finally settling 

 questions either of nomenclature or sequence. It is the outcome of 

 an attempt to meet the requests of many friends for a new list 

 embracing the numerous forms recently distinguished or described — 

 one, in short, that will furnish a systematic guide to this portion of 

 their herbaria. 



I should have much preferred to leave the subject to be dealt 

 with gradually as my monograph appears. Such a course, however, 

 would be fraught with much inconvenience to others, and, as a new 

 edition of the London Catalogue will be needed in the near future, the 

 publication of some such list could not be long delayed. The 

 arrangement, however, of the London Catalogue does not permit 

 the publication of a chart showing at a glance the groups, sections, 

 and subsections, into which this genus has with advantage been 

 divided by Pries, whose arrangement is, in the main, here followed. 



The present is a favourable opportunity for its publication, 

 inasmuch as I have recently had the benefit of a prolonged visit 

 from Dr. Martin Elfstrand, a well-known authority on the Scandi- 

 navian Hieracia, who is thoroughly conversant with the views of 

 Herr Dahlstedt and other Swedish authorities on the genus ; and 

 I take this opportunity of acknowledging the great assistance he 

 has rendered not only in identifying many British forms with those 

 already named in Scandinavia, but in helping to remove anomalies 

 that were the cause of much perplexity in the grouping of our 

 species. I have thought it would add to the utility of the list to 

 append a reference to each plant showing where it has been de- 

 scribed, or an example issued in a published set of Exsiccata. 

 Many of the plants herein given as varieties are regarded in 

 Scandinavia as subspecies. Whilst fully appreciating the pro- 

 longed, painstaking, and honest work which seems shortly destined 

 to result in the enumeration of nearly one thousand named forms 

 for North Europe, I feel it necessary to express a grave doubt as to 

 the practical utility of such subdivision, and my fear that the only 

 effect will be to dishearten the student, and render the study of a 

 wonderfully attractive and interesting genus an impossibility, ex- 

 cept to the few specialists who may devote their entire lives to its 

 elucidation. 



It is not my present intention to describe fully the new species 

 and varieties which appear for the first time in this list, but merely 

 to point out some of the leading features by which they may be 

 distinguished ; neither shall I refer to many of those plants which 

 are to be found in published exsiccata or treatises. One or two 

 familiar names have disappeared, and have been replaced by others 

 in cases where the plants differ from the types to which they had at 

 first been referred. 



Hteracium petiolatum Elfstrand occurs on the ascent to Ben- 

 Journal of Botany,— Vol. 32. [Aug. 1894.] q 



