382 COMPOSITE. [Picris. 



very nanow-linear, quite entire, gradually tapering from an erect, short, claspinff, 

 ovate, many-ribbed base, into long finely acuminate points, which are deeply 

 folded or complicate and acutely keeled, with a pale silvery midiib, flaccid, waved 

 and twisted, erect, drooping or recurved, their dilated bases often edged with pur- 

 ple. Bracts none, or occasionally a solitary one a short distance below the invo- 

 lucres. Heads (synanthera) small, solitary and terminal on the stem and branches, 

 on lonn-, naked, cylindrical peduncles, which are thickened upwards rather sud- 

 denly for a short distance only below the involucre, the dilated portion somewhat 

 furrowed and augular. Involucres ovate, much enlarged after flowering, strongly 

 deflexed in seed; involucral bracts few, always? 8 (8 — 9, Leight.), lanceolate- 

 acuminate, nearly flat, entire, in two rows united at base ; outer row mostly gla- 

 brous, purple-edged, keeled at the hack ; inner row as long as the outer, partially 

 covered behind with a hlackish woolly pubescence and more strongly keeled, 

 otherwise similar, in the variety now described nearly one-half longer than the 

 florets. Florets rather numerous, with bright yellow oblong rays, which are 

 slightly hairy at the back, truncate and 5-tooihed, the points somewhat thickened 

 and glandulose-pilose, inner florets gradually shorter as ihey approach the centre; 

 tube white, cylindrical, very slender, yellowish and villous at top, embraced by the 

 erect unequal pappus, which by the intermingling of its hairs is formed into a sort 

 of tube below. Anthers dark purplish brown in the upper, deep yellow in tlie 

 lower part, clo.sely cohering. Styles finally much exseited, yellow, simple, at 

 length revolute. Receptacle naked, plane. Pappus hairy, in the flower {greenish, 

 matted and unequal, having a few of its rays produced into long simple awns or 

 bristles much longer than the tube of the floret, the rest about equal to the latter. 

 Achenes ^ an incli in length, yellowish or greenish hrown, those of the marginal 

 florets darker, slightly curved, scabrous along the angles with scale-like, and on 

 the interstices with blunt tubei-cular or verrucose prominences, those of the inte- 

 rior florets paler, smoothish and nearly straight; all narrow-oblong, 5-angled 

 grooved and striate, with a deep, oblique, mouthed, basal areola, tapering at top 

 into a slender beak about the length of the achene ; bearing on its slightly 

 enlarged apex a minute, circular, hairy disk, from which diverge the long, slen- 

 der, brown and numerous rays of the widely spreading pappus, which is beauti- 

 fully feathered with white, silky, implexed and simple hairs, forming in the aggre- 

 gate a spherical head between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. A few of the rays of 

 the pappus (usually 4 or 5) exceed the rest in length, with rough naked points, as 

 may best be seen in the nnripe state or before they spread. 



The flowers, as Smith remarks, are expanded about sunrise and close again 

 before noon, hence one of its familiar names, except in dark cloudy weather, when 

 they remain open for a much longer time. 



^?2. T.porrifolmSylj. Purple Goat' s-beard. " Involucre longer 

 than the corollas, leaves undivided straight acuminated slightly 

 dilated above the base, peduncles much thickened upwards." — Br. 

 Fl. p. 201. E. B. t. 638. Curt. Br. Entom. ix. t. 433. 



In meadows and pastures, on hedgebanks and waste ground, occasionally, but 

 rare, and probably not indigenous, i^/. May, June. ^•. 



E. Med.— At Sea-view, Miss Theodore Price !! Near Sandown, Miss Lovell .'.'.' 

 Amongst grass. Niton, J. Curtis, Esq. 



XXXIV. Picris, Linn. Picris. 



" Achenes transversely striated, with scarcely any beak. Pap- 

 pus with the inner hairs feathery. Receptacle naked. Involucre 

 of many compact, upright, equal scales, with several external 

 small linear ones." — Br. Fl. 



1. 'P.hieracioideSy'L. Hawkweed. Picris. " Stem rough with 

 hooked bristles, leaves lanceolate rough toothed, flowers corym- 



