juice milky. Leaves all radical, very variable in size, 2–10 in. long, narrow-linear to lanceolate, flaccid, entire or irregularly toothed or pinnatifid; the lobes narrow, distant, spreading. Scapes usually exceeding the leaves, rarely shorter, sometimes puberulous above. Heads solitary, ½–⅓ in. long; involucral bracts linear, acute, rather fleshy, with membranous borders. Florets longer than the involucre. Achenes linear, deeply grooved. Pappus-bristles slightly dilated below, serrulate or shortly plumose.—Fl. Tasm. i. 226, t. 66; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 164; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 676; Kirk, Students' Fl. 356. M. pygmæa, Raoul, Choix, 45 (not of Hook, and Arn.). Scorzonera scapigera, Forst. Prodr. 534; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 430.
North and South Islands: From the Middle Waikato and Rotorua southwards; plentiful. Sea-level to 4000 ft. December–February.
23. PICRIS, Linn.
Erect branched hispid herbs with milky juice. Leaves alternate or radical, entire or toothed or pinnatifid. Heads corymbose, yellow, homogamous. Involucre urceolate or campanulate, inner bracts in 1 series, subequal; outer in several series, narrow, herbaceous; or the outermost broad and foliaceous. Receptacle flat, naked. Florets all ligulate. Anthers sagittate at the base, acute or setaceous. Achenes linear or oblong, more or less incurved, subterete or angled, 5–10-ribbed with the ribs transversely rugose, narrowed above or distinctly beaked. Pappus copious, of 2 series of soft hairs; inner broad at the base, plumose; outer fewer slender.
Species about 24, mainly natives of Europe and temperate Asia, the New Zealand species widely spread in most temperate and subtropical countries.
1. P. hieracioides, Linn. Sp. Plant. 792.—A biennial herb 1–3 ft. high, more or less hispid with simple or barbed hairs; stem corymbosely branched above. Leaves 3–6 in. long, linear-oblong, lanceolate or linear, sinuate-toothed, the lower ones tapering into a petiole, the upper smaller and narrower, sessile, stem-clasping. Peduncles long, slender. Heads ¾–1 in. diam.; involucral bracts hispid and pubescent. Achenes red-brown, narrow-ellipsoid, tapering into a short beak, very strongly transversely ribbed. Pappus-hairs deciduous, soft, white, plumose.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 432; Raoul, Choix, 45; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 151; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 165; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 678; Kirk, Students Fl. 357. P. attenuata, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 433.
North Island: Not uncommon from the North Cape to the Upper Thames and Waikato. South Island: Nelson—Foxhill, T.F.C. Canterbury—Broken River basin, T.F.C. Sea-level to 2500 ft. August–December.
