Stems.—Several, becoming branched, leafy. Leaves.—Earlier ones roundish; the latter narrower and often cleft. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers.
In some parts of the country these flowers are among the earliest to appear. They are found in New England, as well as south and westward.
The flowers of K. amplexicaulis appear later, and their range is a little farther south. Near Philadelphia great masses of the orange-colored blossoms and pale green stems and foliage line the railway embankments in June.
Rattlesnake-weed.
Hieracium venosum. Composite Family (p. [13]).
Stem or Scape.—One or two feet high, naked or with a single leaf, smooth, slender, forking above. Leaves.—From the root, oblong, often making a sort of flat rosette, usually conspicuously veined with purple. Flower-heads.—Yellow, composed entirely of strap-shaped flowers.
The loosely clustered yellow flower-heads of the rattlesnake-weed somewhat resemble small dandelions. They abound in the pine-woods and dry, waste places of early summer. The purple-veined leaves, whose curious markings give to the plant its common name, grow close to the ground and are supposed to be efficacious in rattlesnake bites. Here again crops out the old “doctrine of signatures,” for undoubtedly this virtue has been attributed to the species solely on account of the fancied resemblance between its leaves and the markings of the rattlesnake.
H. scabrum is another common species, which may be distinguished from the rattlesnake-weed by its stout, leafy stem and unveined leaves.
Dandelion.
Taraxacum officinale. Composite Family (p. [13]).
PLATE XLIII
RATTLESNAKE-WEED.—H. venosum.