TOL'PIS BARBA'TA. 
YELLOW HAWKWEED. 
Class. Order. 
SYNGENESIA. POLY G AM IA A5QUALIS. 
Natural Order. 
COMPOSITE. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
S. Europe. 
2 feet. 
June, July. 
Annual. 
in 1620. 
No. 259. 
Of the word Tolpis, we believe no one has been 
able to trace any derivation whatever. It was first 
used by Adanson, who is supposed to have invented 
it. He, probably, thought it better to do so than to 
compound Greek words, and hazard criticism. Bar- 
bata, from the Latin, bearded. 
The term Hawkweed, by which this plant has 
been so long familiar, is the translation of a Greek 
name, borne by plants of the same natural family. It 
was adopted in reference to their supposed virtues 
in giving a sharp-sightedness, equal to the hawks ; or 
that, as an old author intimates, the hawk sharpened 
his sight by it. This idea would be readily sug- 
gested by the rules which guided the ancients in 
judging of the virtues of plants ; as the flower, with its 
dark centre and brilliant ray, resembles a bright eye. 
This is a free-growing slender annual, which re- 
quires support, or it will spread about to the annoy- 
ance of its neighbours. Its flowers are very pretty, 
and our esteem for them will increase by minute ex- 
amination. 
It is merely requisite to sow seeds, early in April, 
in the open ground. 
Hort. Kew. 2, v. I, 461. 
