268 THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. -° [Hiveraciwm. 
bricated. Receptacle without scales. Achenes angular or striated, not 
narrowed at the top; with a pappus of simple, generally stiff hairs, ofa 
tawny-white or brownish colour. 
A rather numerous European and north Asiatic genus, with a few Ame- 
rican species, very nearly allied to Crepis, but the achenes are not per- 
ceptibly contracted at the top, and ‘the hairs of the pappus are usually — 
stiffer, and never so white. The habit is also different, with the exception 
of a few species, which are also intermediate in more essential characters. 
‘The species are some of them very variable, and specimens are frequently 
found apparently intermediate between some of the commonest ones. In 
the attempt to classify these forms, and to give greater exactness to their 
definitions, modern botanists have distributed them into a large number of 
supposed species, amounting to 33 for Britain alone in the last editions of 
‘The British Flora’ and of Babington’s Manual. But the difficulty of 
distinguishing them appears only to increase with their subdivision, and 
the seven here enumerated will probably be found to be the only true 
botanical species indigenous to Britain. 
Peduncles radical, bearing a single flower-head. : 
Peduncles leafless. Stems creeping. Leaves white under- 
neath. Fijower-heads pale yellow . j . 1 A, Pilosella, 
Peduncles or flower-stems with one or more narrow leaves. 
No creeping stems. Leaves not white. Flower-heads 
large, bright yellow. 
Radical leaves ovate. Involucres with shorthairs . . 3. A, murorum. 
Radical leaves narrow. Involucres with long hairs . . 2. H, alpinum, 
Flowering-stems with more than one flower-head. 
Radical leaves mostly persistent at the time of flowering. Stem- 
leaves one or few. Outer involucral bracts few and short. 
Stem-leaves ovate and toothed, or small and narrow, 
stalked or sessile, scarcely ‘stem- -clasping. 3. H, murorum, 
Stem-leaves one or two, entire, glaucous, clasping the 
stem with broad rounded auricles . 4, H. cerinthoides, 
No radical leaves at the time of flowering. Stems leafy. Outer 
involucral bracts imbricated, 
Upper stem-leaves sessile or shortly stalked, not clasping 
the stem. 
Upper stem-leaves all tapering at the base, usually 
narrow 5. H, wmbellatum. 
Upper stem- leaves short and broad, rounded at the base 6. H. sabaudum, 
Upper stem-leaves clasping the stem. 
Auricles of the stem-leaves short and rounded. 
Stem-leaves several, ciliate. Pappus dirty-white . 7. H. prenanthoides. 
Stem-leaves very few, glabrous. Pappus very white 
and soft . Crepis hieracioides, 
Auricles of the stem-leaves long , and very pointed, or 
angular . A ° : : . : . ; . Crepis puludosa, 
1, H. Pilosella. Linn. (fig. 600). Mouse-ear Hawkweed.—Stock 
perennial, with spreading tufts of radical leaves, and creeping, leafy, barren 
shoots. Leaves much smaller than in the other British species, oblong or 
lanceolate, entire, tapering at the base, and often stalked, green above. 
with a few long hairs, white underneath with a short stellate down. 
Peduncles radical, with a single head of lemon-coloured flowers, often 
tinged with red on the outside. Involucres and upper part of the peduncle 
more or less clothed with a minute and close whitish down, mixed with 
short, stiff, spreading black hairs. Achenes shorter in proportion to the 
pappus than in the other species. 
In dry pastures, on banks and roadsides, throughout Europe and Russian 
