COMPOSITE. 



479 



1. Common Hawkbit. Leontodon hispidus, Linn. (Fig. 574.) 

 (Hedypnois, Eng. Bot. t. 554. Apargia, Bab. Man.) 



The whole plant more or less hispid 

 with erect, stiff, short hairs, often forked 

 or stellate at the top. Leaves long 

 and narrow, coarsely toothed or pinna- 

 tifid. Peduncles 6 inches to a foot or 

 more long, slightly swollen at the top, 

 with a single rather large flower-head. 

 Bracts of the involucre narrow, and 

 always hispid, the inner row much 

 longer than the outer ones. Achenes 

 long, striate, and transversely rugose, 

 slightly tapering at the top, but seldom 

 distinctly beaked. Pappus of about a 

 dozen brown, feathery hairs, about as 

 long as the achene, surrounded by 5 or 

 6 others not a quarter that length. 



In meadows and pastures, very com- 

 mon in Europe, and eastward to the 

 Caucasus and the Ural, except the ex- 

 treme north. Abundant in Britain, as 



far north as Glasgow and Forfar. Fl. the whole summer and autumn. 

 A nearly glabrous variety (L. hastilis), frequent on the Continent, does 

 not appear to have been found in Britain. 



Fig. 574. 



2. Autumnal Hawkbit. Leontodon autumnalis, Linn. 



(Fig. 575.) 



(Hedypnois, Eng. Bot. t. 830. Apargia, Bab. Man.) 



Habit nearly of the long-rooted Hypochoere, but with smaller flower- 

 heads, and no scales between the florets. Leaves long, narrow, and 

 pinnatifid, with a few narrow lobes, glabrous, or with a few long, stiff 

 hairs. Flower-stems erect, usually with 1 or 2 single- headed branches, 

 having sometimes 1 or 2 narrow, nearly entire leaves near the base ; 

 the branches or peduncles nearly glabrous, bearing a few small scales. 

 Involucres oblong, tapering at the base into the enlarged summit of 

 the peduncle, glabrous in the common variety, with closely appressed, 

 imbricated bracts. Achenes long, striate, and transversely wrinkled, 

 tapering into a short beak, scarcely perceptible in the outer ones. 

 Pappus brown and feathery, without the short, outer hairs of the 

 common II. 



