COMPOSITE FAMILY 



2S7 



peduncles \erv slender ; heads lew, corymljose, )'ello\v, erect 111 

 bud ; brail-s with black glandular hairs ; fruii slender, many-ribbed, 

 not lieaked ; pappus of stiff, l)rittle, brownish hairs. — Damp 

 woods, mostlv in the north. — Fl. July- -September. Perennial. 



41. HiERACiu.M (Hawkweed). — Perennial plants with milky 

 juice, often hairy ; leaves chiefly radical ; Jieads yellow, or rarely 

 orange ; brads many, imbricate, unequal ; receptacle nearly flat, 

 without scales, pitted; anthers not tailed'; jniit not beaked; 

 pappus of I row of stiff, 

 l)riltle, unecjual, smiple, 

 brownish hairs, often with 

 a crenate disk below. 

 (Name from the (ireek 

 hierax, a hawk.) The most 

 difficult genus in a difficult 

 Order, and one in ■^^hich 

 botanists do not at all agree 

 as to what constitutes a 

 species. i'entham recog- 

 nised about 7 British 

 species. Sir Tose])h Hooker 

 T2, and Mr. F. J. Haiibury 

 enumerates 104 as species, 

 arranged under 15 groups. 

 This large number, most of 

 which are rare forms from 

 the Scottish mountains, 

 arises from the recognition 

 of minute characters which 

 prove constant under culti- 

 vation. " \'ariable as the 

 genus is," says Sir Joseph 



Hooker, "it is a curious fact that the sequence of the species is so 

 obvious as to have been recognised by all botanists ; and that 

 this sequence represents to a very contiderabje e.xtent the spread 

 of the species in altitude and area in the British Isles." The 

 following are amongst the most common and marked types ; — 



I. H. Pilosella (Mouse-ear Hav^-kweed).— A silky plant with 

 long, soft hairs, and slender leafy runners: leaves mostly radical, 

 oblong or obovate, entire, stellately hoary underneath ; licads 

 solitary, on scapes 2 — 10 in. high, bright lemon-yellow or rcddish- 

 brown beneath. — Dry banks ; common..— Fl. !May — August. 

 Perennial. 



lEK.vcilM I'll. .SELLA Qli'use ear Hazohzi't-t' f). 



