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BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
GENUS XXXIX. 
THE IIAWKWEED. (Hieracium, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. SYNGENESIA jEQUALIS. 
Generic Character. —Involucrum imbricated. Receptacle naked, or -with a few short hairs. Pappus hairy, sessile, generally dirty 
brown. (Dec.) 
Description, &c. —This is a very extensive genus, but the plants generally so closely resemble each other 
that it seems scarcely necessary to describe them in detail. I shall, therefore, only describe one species, which 
is very different from the rest. The English name of Hawk weed, and the botanic name of Hieracium , which 
is derived from the Greek word signifying a hawk, are both given to this genus in consequence of the juice of 
some of the species being used to strengthen the eye-sight, and as hawks are known to have remarkably keen 
sight, they were supposed anciently to feed on this herb. 
1.— THE ORANGE HAWKWEED. (Hieracium aurantiacum, Lin .) 
Engravings. —Eng. Bot., t. 1469 ; 2nd ed., t. 1085; and our fig. leafless, hairy, densely corymbose, many-headed. Involucrum shaggy. 
7, in PI. 42. ( Lindley .) 
Specific Character. —Leaves elliptic, acute, entire. Stalk almost 
Description, &c. —This very curious plant is met with in woods in the north of England, and in Scotland, 
though it is said not to be truly a native of either country. It has been long cultivated in gardens, and is 
described by Gerard and other early writers as a garden flower under the odd name of Grim the collier, in 
allusion to the long black glandular hairs which cover the stem and involucre. The flowers are of a deep orange 
colour, and they grow like what is commonly called the Hen and Chickens Daisy, a number of smaller flowers 
surrounding and peeping from beneath a large one. The plant is a perennial, and it produces a succession of 
flowers all the summer. 
There are eighteen other British species of Hawk weed, two of which (II. pulmonarium and II. murorum) 
are said to be very efficacious in diseases of the lungs. 
GENUS XL. 
THE CAT’S-EAK. (Hypoch^ris. Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. SYNGENESIA vEQUALIS. 
Generic Character. —Involucrum oblong, imbricated. Receptacle paleaceous. Pappus stipitate, in two rows, of which the outer is setaceous 
and short, the inner feathery. (Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —The common Cat’s-Ear is a little annual weed, with very bitter milky juice, and small 
yellow flowers. The spotted Cat’s-Ear ( H. maculata , Lin.) and the long-rooted Cat’s-Ear ( H. radicata , Lin.) 
are placed by some botanists in another genus, called Achyrophorous. The first of these species has very curious 
spotted leaves, and the second a long fleshy root. Both are perennials, with large yellow flowers, which they 
produce in July. The name of Hyphochoeris is derived from two Greek words, signifying hog’s food, because 
pigs are very fond of the root of H. radicata. 
