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, sub-terete 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.