SONCHUS. HIERACIUM. 117 



346. SoNCHus OLERACEus. S>olu»®ijt£itlj : §>ioint'Wl)niSilt : 

 Sioiniti. — Waste grounds, common. Summer. The plant is ex- 

 tremely variable, and one is often tempted to believe that the prickly- 

 leaved kinds must be specifically distinct from the dark, smooth one, 

 but no distinctive characters have been discovered. " A pecuUarly 

 marked variety occurs in the vicinity of the sea along the coast of 

 Berwickshire. It is characterized by having the flower-stalks very 

 downy when young ; involucre usually bearing a number of glands ; 

 leaves lyrato-pinnatifid, the terminal lobe angled and largest, generally 

 destitute of spines ; of a glaucous green colour ; in texture thin and 

 flexible ; achenia minutely wrinkled. On rocks near Redheugh this 

 variety is almost stemless, and the leaves spread around the root in 

 the manner of a star. This plant is the var. /3. of Smith." J. Hardy. 

 See Ann. and Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. iii. p. 424.— It is the var. 7 of 

 Dr. Withering (Bot. Arrang. iii. p. 676), who has described it at 

 length. 



347. S. ASPER. With the preceding, and equally common. On 

 St. Abb's-head and other places by the sea, we have gathered a variety 

 without a stem,---the leaves spreading in a circle on the ground, and 

 the flowers forming an almost sessile panicle. 



348. S. ARVENSis. Corn-fields, generally indicative of a cold, 

 undrained soil. It is apt to abound amongst beans. A large showy 

 weed without beauty. Autumn. 



349. HiERACitTM piLOSELLA. Dry banks and muirish pastures, 

 frequent. A pretty plant, and, for its class, flowering early. May- 

 July. 



18. H. aurantiacum. Cf)C Coalier. Is naturalized in the plan- 

 tation which overhangs the garden at Newwaterhaugh ; and in the 

 woods of the Hirsel. It is now uncommon, even in cottage gardens. 

 July. 



* Leaves collected at the base of the stem. 



350. H. MURDRUM. Plate II. figs. 1-3. — " Stem corymbose, 

 with a solitary leaf: leaves ovate-heartshaped, wavy, with radiating 

 teeth chiefly at the base." Smith. — The leaves are radical, and often 

 collected into a rosette, on long hairy stalks, naked on the upper, but 

 rougbish with scattered stiff hairs on the under surface, and ciliated 

 on the margin and midrib. The stem is slightly hairy, round, either 

 leafless or with a single small leaf near the middle, dividing above in 

 a divaricate and forked manner into from 3 to 8 branchlets, each bear- 

 ing its large yellow flower. These flower-stalks are blackish, with 

 coarse setae projecting through a cottony down. The scales of the 

 involucre are unequal, dark green, rough, with coarse setae, and 

 cottony down; the interior paler on the margins, elongated, and often 



29. Tragopogon porrifolius. Mr. G. R. Tate found a single specimen 

 at the Heal Station of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway in 1851. It was 

 a luxuriant plant and seeded profusely; but no successors api)eared in 

 1852. 



