Scnecio. | XLII. COMPOSITA. 245 
sometimes altogether wanting as in S, vulgaris. Achenes covered with 
minute, appressed hairs, 
On banks, waste places, and borders of woods, in temperate and 
southern Europe, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. ound 
occasionally in most parts of Britain, but not generally common, 
Fl. summer and autumn. 
4. S. squalidus, Linn. (fig. 545). Squalid S.—An annual or biennial, 
or even sometimes forming a stock of two or three years’ duration, 
with the stature of S. vulgaris, but quite glabrous. Leaves rather thick, 
pinnatifid, with narrow, deeply cut, or jagged lobes. Flower-heads 
rather large, in a loose corymb, with a bright-yellow, spreading ray, as 
conspicuous as in S. Jacobwa. Achenes silky-hairy. 
A south European species, quite established on walls at Oxford, 
Bideford, Cork, and a few other localities in middle and southern 
England and Ireland, but evidently not indigenous. Fl. summer and 
autumn. 
5. S. aquaticus, Huds. (fig. 546). Water S.—Not always easy to 
distinguish from S, Jacobea, especially from occasional autumnal offsets 
of the latter, when the main stem has been accidentally destroyed. The 
foliage is nearly the same, but the plant appears to be of shorter dura- 
tion, the stem not so tall, seldom attaining 2 feet, more branched and 
spreading, the flower-heads larger, fewer, on longer peduncles, forming 
a loose, irregular, spreading corymb, and especially the achenes appear 
to be always quite glabrous. 
_ In wet places, along ditches, &c., spread over Europe, extending 
northward to southern Scandinavia. Common in Britain. Fl. summer. 
6. S. Jacobeea, Linn. (fig. 547). Ragwort S.—Rootstock short and 
thick, without creeping shoots. Stems 2 to 4 feet high, erect, scarcely 
branched except at the top. Leaves pinnate, with ovate, obovate, or 
narrow segments, coarsely toothed or pinnatifid, the terminal ones 
large and confluent, the lower ones smaller and distinct, all glabrous, 
or with a loose woolly down, especially on the under side. Flower- 
heads rather large, of a bright yellow, in a handsome, compact, terminal 
corymb. Involucral bracts tipped with black, the outer ones few, and 
very small, fFlorets of the ray from 12 to 15, linear-oblong and 
spreading, occasionally but rarely deficient. Achenes of the disk 
covered with short hairs, those of the ray glabrous. 
On roadsides, in waste places, and bushy pastures, all over Europe 
and Russian Asia, except the extreme north. Very common in Britain. 
Fl, summer, lasting till late. When checked in its growth, it: often 
assumes the spreading inflorescence of S. aqguaticus, when it can only 
be distinguished by inspection of the achenes. [The ray-flowers are 
wanting in the var. S. flosculosus, Jord. ] ) 
7. S. erucifolius, Linn. (fig. 548). Narrow-leaved S.—Very near 
S. Jacobea. It is fully as tall, and has the same inflorescence and 
flower-heads, but the rootstock is shortly creeping, the leaves are much 
more regularly divided into narrower segments, the terminal ones not 
very different from the others, and the achenes of the ray as hairy as 
those of the disk. ‘The whole plant is generally more or less covered 
with a loose, cottony down. S. tenuifolius, Jacq. 
The geographical area and stations are about the same as those of 
S. Jacobea. It is rather more common in central and southern Europe, 
