480 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



In meadows, pastures, and waste places, 

 throughout Europe and Russian Asia, 

 from the Mediterranean to the Arctic 

 regions. Abundant all over Britain. FL 

 summer and autumn. The mountain H. 

 (Iledypnois Taraxaci, Eng. Bot. 1. 1109) 

 is a northern or alpine variety of dwarf 

 stature, with the flower- stems often sim- 

 ple, and rather large flower-heads, the 

 much enlarged summit of the peduncle, 

 and the involucre more or less covered 

 with black hairs. Not unfrequent in the 

 Scotch Highlands. The true L. Tarax- 

 aci, from the alps of central Europe, is 

 quite a distinct plant. 



Fig. 575. 



3. Lesser Hawkbit. Leontodon hirtus, Linn. (Fig. 576.) 



(Hedypnois, Eng. Bot. t. 555. Thrincia, Brit. Fl.) 



Usually a smaller plant than the two 

 last, and glabrous, or with a few stiff, 

 mostly forked hairs on the leaves and 

 lower part of the peduncles. Leaves 

 oblong or linear, coarsely toothed, sinu- 

 ate or shortly pinnatifid. Peduncles 

 seldom above 6 inches high, with a sin- 

 gle rather small head of bright yellow 

 flowers. Involucres green, glabrous, 

 thickening at the base after flowering, 

 consisting of 10 or 12 nearly equal bracts, 

 with several small imbricated ones at the 

 base. Achenes of the outer row curved, 

 slightly tapering at tjie top, with a very 

 short, scaly pappus ; the others like 

 those of the common If. 



In rather dry open pastures, moors, 

 and waste places, in central and south- 

 ern Europe, scarcely extending to its 

 eastern limits, or northward to the Baltic. 



Yery common in England and Ireland, and found in Scotland as far 



as Glasgow and Fife. Fl. summer. 



