COMPOSITE FAMILY 



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

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

 numerous, yellow, 1 in. across, with bracts on the peduncles. — 

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



39. Helmintia (Ox-tongue). — A branched plant, with milky 

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

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

 involucral bracts in 2 rows, the outer ones subulate, adpressed, 

 those in each row equal ; fruit with a slender beak longer than 

 itself; pappus in several rows of feathery hairs. (Name from the 

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



1. H. echioides (Bristly Ox- 

 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. Crepis (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 rows, the outer shorter ; 

 fruit tapering or beaked ; 

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

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



1. C. fxtida (Fetid Hawk's-beard).— A hispid plant, about a 

 foot high, branched from below ; leaves runcinate ; peduncles long, 

 thickened upwards, bracteate ; heads corymbose, drooping when 

 in bud, I in. across, bright yellow ; fruits many-ribbed, with long, 

 slender beaks, those in the centre longer. — Chalky places in the 

 south-east; rare. — Fl. June, July. Biennial. 



2. C. taraxacifblia. — A hispid plant, r — 2 feet high, branched 

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

 runcinate ; peduncles very slender, not thickened above ; heads 

 erect when in bud, yellow, the outer florets brownish-red beneath ; 



helmintia echioides {Bristly Ox-tcngtte). 



