CriMPOSITE FAMILY 



^85 



•Ife 



2—3 feet high, corymbosely branched above ; slems rough with 

 hooked bristles: leaves narrow, rough, and toothed; heads 

 numerous, yellow, i in. across, with bracts on the peduncles. — 

 Waste places ; common.— Fl. July— September. Biennial. 



39. Helmi'ntia (Ox-tongue). — a branched plant, with niilkv 

 juice and stiff bristles rising from swollen bases ; heads large, 

 terminal, yellow, with 3 — 5 leafy cordate bracts below them ; 

 invohicral bracts in 2 rows, tl^ outer ones subulate, adpressed, 

 those in each row equal : p-tiit \\\t\\ a slender beak longer than 

 itself ; pappus in several row-s of feathery hairs. (Name from the 

 Greek hehnius, a worm, from the shape of the fruit.) 



I. H. ecJiioides (Bristly 0.\- 

 tongue). — A stout, much- 

 branched plant, 2 — 3 feet 

 high, well distinguished by 

 its numerous prickles, each 

 of which springs from a raised 

 white spot, and by the 5 large 

 ovate-cordate bracts below 

 each of the terminal heads 

 of yellow flowers. — Waste 

 places ; common. — Fl. June 

 — October. Annual. 



40. Crepi.s (Hawk's - 

 beard). — Branched plants 

 with a milky juice ; leaves 

 chiefly radical ; heads small, 

 in panicles, yellow, or tinged 

 with red ; bracts many, linear, 

 in 2 ro\YS, the outer shorter ; 

 fruit tapering or beaked : 

 pappus of many rows of simple hairs. (Xame said to be the 

 Greek krepis, a slipper: but, if so, apparently inappropriate.) 



1. C. jaiida (Fetid Hawk's-beard). — A l)ispid plant, about a 

 foot high, branched from below ; leaves runc*inate : peduncles long, 

 thickened u[)wards, bracteate ; heads corymbose, droopuig w"hen 

 in bud, ^ in. across, bright yellow ; jniiis man\- ribbed, with Faig, 

 slender beak«, those m the centre longer.— Chalky jjlaces in the 

 south-east : rare. — Fl. June, July. BienniaJ. 



2. C. taraxacifi'lia. — A hispid plant, 1 — »2 feet high, branched 

 above : stem ribbed and furrowed, stained with red : leaves 

 runcinate ; peduncles \ery slender, not thickened above: heads 

 erect when m bud, yellow, the outer florets brownish-red beneath : 



HELMiXTI.\ ECHIt.iPES (B?-is//y Ox-fm^ifLA 



