252 BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS chap. 



HiERACiTJM (Hawkweed) 



Pappus of simple hairs. This is one of those genera 

 which are undergoing rapid change. The forms run 

 into one another, and no two botanists are agreed as to 

 the species. 



Bentham and Hooker accept seven principal forms as 

 regards Britain. 



H. Pilosella (Mouse -ear Hawkweed). — There are 

 about 50 florets to a head. According to Linnseus, in fine 

 weather it is open from 7 to 3. The flowers are much 

 visited by insects. The leaves have a few long stiff 

 hairs above, and are protected underneath by a white 

 felt of stellate hairs (see Cerastium alpinum, p. 28). 

 In very dry weather the leaf rolls up, so that the white 

 felt comes uppermost and protects the whole leaf 



H. alpinum is shaggy, with woolly, glandular, and 

 stellate hairs, as in so many mountain plants. It is a 

 rare plant in Britain, occurring in North Wales, the 

 North of England, and Scotland. It is regarded by 

 some as an Alpine variety of H. murorum. 



H. murorum. — The stem is glabrous, or with long 

 white woolly hairs on the lower part, getting more dense 

 towards the base. The leaves are slightly hairy above, 

 glaucous green below. G-renier and Godron give a some- 

 what different account. They describe the leaves as 

 " couvertes sur les deux faces ou aumoins sur I'inf^rieure 

 de longs polls mous, sans polls 6toil^s " ; and the stem as 

 " plus ou moins pubescente ou herissee munie vers le 

 haut de polls glanduleux qui manquent quelquefois, un 

 peu rameuse, rarement naine et uniflore." ^ 



H. anglicum. — Sometimes glabrous, sometimes with 

 long white, and other, glandular, hairs. 



H. umbellatum. — The leaves are glabrous, or hairy 

 underneath ; the stems have long loose hairs, especially 

 towards the base. 



H. boreale is more hairy than the last. 



H. prenanthoides. — The involucres and peduncles bear 



' Flore de France, vol. ii. 



