COMPOSITE FAMILY 



287 



peduncles very slender j heads few, corymbose, yellow, erect in 

 bud ; bracts with black glandular hairs ; fruit slender, many-ribbed, 

 not beaked ; pappus of stiff, brittle, brownish hairs. — Damp 

 woods, mostly in the north.— Fl. July — September. Perennial. 



41. Hieracium (Hawkweed). — Perennial plants with milky 

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

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

 without scales, pitted ; anthers not tailed ; fruit not beaked ; 

 pappus of 1 row of stiff, 

 brittle, unequal, simple, 

 brownish hairs, often with 

 a crenate disk below. 

 (Name from the Greek 

 hierax, a hawk.) The most 

 difficult genus in a difficult 

 Order, and one in which 

 botanists do not at all agree 

 as to what constitutes a 

 species. Bentham recog- 

 nised about 7 British 

 species, Sir Joseph Hooker 

 12, and Mr. F. J. Hanbury 

 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. " Variable as the hierAcium pilosella {Mouse-ear Ha-wkweeJ). 



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 considerable extent the spread 

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

 following are amongst the most common and marked types : — 



1. H. Pilosella (Mouse-ear Hawkweed). — A silky plant with 

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

 oblong or obovate, entire, stellately hoary underneath ; heads 

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

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

 Perennial. 



