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HEDYPNOIS Taraxici.
Alpine Hedypnois.
S YNGENESIA Polygamta-esqualU.
G en. Char. Recept. naked,dotted. Cal. imbricated*
with fcales at the bafe. Down feathery, feffile,
unequal.
Spec. Char. Stalks moftly fingle-flowered. Leaves
fmooth, toothed; the teeth recurved. Calyx
hairy.
Syn . Hedypnois Taraxici. Sm. FI. Brit. 82,5.
H. autumn ale s. Hudf. 341.
Hieracium Taraxici. Linn. Sp. PI. 1125. With. 683.
Hull. 173. Lightf. 435. DickJ. H. Sice, fajc.
17. 15. ‘
T T H E late Mr. J. Mackay, to whom we are' obliged for
many fpecimens of this rare plant, mentioned it as growing
in moift places on feveral of the Highland mountains. Light-
foot gathered it in Skye, and Hudfon in Wales, but few
travellers have noticed it.
The root is perennial, abruptly bitten off, producing long
Ample lateral fibres, and the flowers appear in Auguft. The
herbage is variable, the leaves being either lanceolate and
almoft linear, or fpatulate and obovate; their teeth alfo vary
greatly in fize or prominence, but are always more or lefs
runcinate, or hooked backwards. The furface of the leaves
is fmooth. The ftalk or ftalks vary in length. Though generally
Ample, they are fometimes divided. They fwell
upwards, and there affume a denfe black hairinefs, continued
all over the calyx. One or two awl-fhaped brafitese are found
on the ftalk. The florets are of a full yellow, with brownifh'
teeth at the fummit. Receptacle naked. Seeds angular and
rough. Down finely feathery, feffile, though the germen feems
furmounted with a taper neck refembling a footftalk, but as
the feed fwells this appearance vanifhes.
Dr. Solander, who firft found a Angle fpecimen of this
plant in Lapland, conceived it to be a mule production between
Hieracium alpinum and Leontodon Taraxacum, but we find
nothing to countenance fuch an opinion,.