[Illustration]
There are a great many kinds of Crepis, natives of the northern
hemisphere.
[Sidenote: =Gray Hawksbeard=
_Crèpis occidentàlis_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
West, etc.=]
This is a pretty plant, for the gray-green foliage sets off the yellow
flowers. It is from six to eighteen inches high, more or less hairy or
downy all over, with one or several, stout, branching, leafy stems, and
thickish leaves, variously cut, mostly jagged like Dandelion leaves,
with crisp margins, dark bluish-green in color and often covered on
the under side with obscure white down, the root-leaves narrowed to
leaf-stalks at the base. The flower-heads are about an inch across,
with bright yellow rays, the involucre sprinkled with short, dark
hairs. This grows on dry plains, as far east as Colorado.
[Sidenote: =Smooth Hawksbeard=
_Crèpis vìrens_
=Yellow
Summer
Cal., Oreg., etc.=]
This is a weed from Europe, growing in fields and waste places, in the
East and on the Pacific Coast. It is a smooth plant, from one to two
feet tall, with green leaves the shape of Dandelion leaves, chiefly
in a bunch at the root. The many, small, yellow flowers, each about a
quarter of an inch long, are in a loose cluster at the top of the stem.
This is very variable.
[Sidenote: =Hawksbeard=
_Crèpis acuminàta_
=Yellow
Spring, summer
West, except Ariz.=]
A handsome and conspicuous plant, often forming large clumps, from one
to three feet tall, with dull green, downy, rather leathery leaves,
irregularly slashed and cut, and large clusters of light bright yellow
flowers, each about three-quarters of an inch across. This grows on
hillsides and on high dry mesas.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Gray Hawksbeard--C. occidentalis.