48 BRITISH HIERACIA. 



teeth, rarely dentate j purplish and rather hairy beneath, spotted 

 or blotched with deeper purple above j more or less truncate at 

 the base. Petioles rather short (rarely elongated), more or less 

 villous. Pechincles rigid, supported at the base by a small 

 (rarely) sub-foUaceous bract ; densely floccose, and setose. Invo- 

 lucres with scattered hairs and few setae. Phyllaries short, very 

 broad, bbtuse, white at the margins with dense floccose down. 

 Florets bright yellow. 



I cannot regard this plant as any form of JT. ccesiwn, nor indeed 

 as being very closely allied to that species. Its nearly glabrous, 

 ciliated leaves and yellow styles indicate a nearer aUiance with 

 S. palUfhim, from which, however, it differs strongly in having 

 always obtuse phyllaries, and involucres truncate at the base. Its 

 few heads borne in pairs and wiry rigid stem also present, even in 

 cultivation, a constant feature which induces me to regard it as a 

 true species. 



Erom the M. ovaUfoUum of Jordan it differs in having a more 

 wiry stem, rigid (not flexuose) peduncles, firmer and less hairy 

 leaves, broad truncate-based involucres, and very blunt but much 

 less attenuate phyllaries. 



Although this plant was originally described under the name of 

 " H. hypoeharoides" and subsequently, as a supposed variety of 

 H. easium, as "var. JiypocheBricKs" and "va/r.hypocheridoideB," yet 

 (not without due deference to the ride of priority), there is never- 

 theless BO much that is unsatiBfactory in the above-mentioned names 

 that I believe no one will object to its bearing the simpler name of 

 " Gihsoni," after its original discoverer, the late Samuel Gibson of 

 Hebden Bridge. 



