148 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
SPECIES II.— L A C T U C A SCARIOLA. Linn. 
Plate DCCCVI. 
Reich. Ic. FL Germ, et Helv. Vol. XIX. Tab. MCCCCXXI. Figs. 1, 2. 
Stem slightly scabrous with small prickles at the base, or 
nearly smooth. Radical leaves oblong, sinuate-pinnatifid ; lower 
stem-leaves ascending, oblong, runcinate-pinnatifid, sub-acute ; the 
upper ones usually undivided ; all (except the lowest) sagittate- 
amplcxicaul, with acute spreading auricles (not decurrent), 
spinous-denticulate on the margins, spiny on the midrib beneath. 
Panicle with the branches rather elongate, ascending. Achenes 
greyish-olive, elliptical-ovoid, narrowly bordered, scabrous at the 
top ; beak white, as long as the achene. 
In waste places. Rare. Plentiful near Southend, Essex ; 
sparingly about Plumstead, Kent ; and I have specimens from 
near Longden, Worcestershire, collected by Mr. T. Westcombe. 
It occurs also in Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex, and Cambridgeshire ; 
but I have not seen specimens from these counties. 
England. Biennial or annual. Late Summer 
o 
and Autumn. 
This plant bears some resemblance to L. virosa, which is com- 
bined with it by Mr. Bentham : it is, however, much more nearly 
allied to L. saligna than to the preceding species. The stem is 
usually shorter than that of L. virosa, rarely exceeding 3 feet in 
height, much less prickly, and that only towards the base, the leaves 
and branches ascending in an angle of about forty-five degrees ; the 
segments of the leaves are longer, more acute, and more curved 
backwards than in the pinnatilid forms of L. virosa ; the auricles are 
more acute, and not bent round and applied to the stem, as is the 
case (at least in the lower and intermediate leaves) in that species ; 
the anthodes are smaller; the achenes narrower, more attenuated 
below, less compressed, and with narrower margins, and their colour, 
instead oi* being nearly black, is of an olive-grey ; the plant is of a 
deeper green, and less glaucous. 
In L. Scariola a comparatively small number of seeds germinate 
in autumn, the greater number not till the succeeding spring. This 
is the case at Southend, where L. virosa appears to be invariably 
biennial, L. Scariola very partially so, and L. saligna truly annual. 
Of course, in warmer Localities the two latter may be more fre- 
quently biennial, and in colder ones L. virosa may become annual. 
Trick/// Lettuce. 
French, Laitue Sauvaje, German, Wilder Laltich. 
