492 



THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



3. Smooth Crepis. Crepis virens, Linn. (Fig. 590.) 



(C. tectorum, Eng. Bot. t. 1111.) 



An erect or ascending, branched an- 

 nual or biennial, from 1 to 3 feet high, 

 usually glabrous or nearly so. Leaves 

 linear or lanceolate, toothed or pinna- 

 tifid, with triangular or narrow, but 

 short lobes ; the radical ones stalked, 

 the upper ones clasping the stem by 

 pointed, spreading auricles. Flower- 

 heads small, in loose, often leafy panicles. 

 Involucres often slightly hispid, and be- 

 come conical after flowering ; the outer 

 bracts narrow-linear, and rather close. 

 Achenes narrow-oblong, very slightly 

 contracted at the top, but not beaked, 

 and generally shorter than the pappus, 

 although there are frequently in the 

 same head a few much longer than the 

 rest, and longer than their own pappus. 

 In pastures, on dry banks, roadsides, 

 and waste places, throughout western and central Europe, from Scan- 

 dinavia to the Mediterranean ; further east apparently replaced by the 

 true C. tectorum. One of the commonest of the British Ligulates. Fl. 

 the whole summer and autumn. It varies much in stature and in the 

 size and number of the flower-heads, but they are always smaller than 

 in any other British species. 



Fig. 590. 



4. Hough Crepis. Crepis biennis, Linn. (Fig. 591.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 149, not good.) 



A taller and stouter plant than the smooth C, more frequently 

 biennial, less branched from the base, but forming a broad, terminal 

 corymb of rather larger flower-heads ; the leaves more or less rough 

 with short, stiff hairs ; and the outer bracts of the involucre broader, 

 with a whitish, membranous edge. In this respect it resembles the 

 larger forms of the beaked C, but the achenes have the ribs much 

 smoother, and although narrowed at the top, they do not bear the 

 long, slender beak of that species. 



In similar situations with the last three, dispersed over temperate 

 Europe, from Sweden to the Mediterranean. Rare in Britain; its pre- 



