Equally abundant is the Autumnal Hawkbit (_Leontodon autumnalis_), which is also found in pastures. It is a very similar plant in many respects, but may be easily distinguished by its smaller heads of flowers on branching stalks. The flowering stems are erect, from six to eighteen inches high, each with one or two branches bearing a few small scales and a single head of flowers. The involucre consists of several rows of smooth, closely-overlapping bracts, and is narrowed at the base into the enlarged upper part of the stalk. The florets are all ligulate, as in the last species; and the pappus consists of brown, feathery hairs, all of the same length. The flowers appear during August and September.
The Meadow Thistle (_Carduus pratensis_) is abundant in some of the southern counties of Britain and Ireland, but is rarely seen in the north. Nearly all the leaves of this plant are radical, and these are long, narrow, and covered with cottony hairs. The few leaves of the stem are narrow, with short teeth that are only slightly prickly. The stem itself grows from twelve to eighteen inches high, and is usually unbranched, with a single head of flowers; sometimes, however, it has one or two branches, each terminating in a flower-head. The involucre is globular in form, covered with cottony hairs, and composed of closely-placed bracts. The flowers are purple. The plant grows chiefly in moist pastures, and flowers from June to August.
The Black Knapweed or Hardhead (_Centaurea nigra_) is a very common flower of meadows and pastures, flowering from June to September. Its stem is erect, tough, branched, from a few inches to three feet in height. The leaves are long and narrow; the upper ones entire or nearly so, and clasping the stem; and the lower coarsely toothed or divided into lobes. The flower-head has somewhat the appearance of a purple thistle, but the involucre is not prickly. The latter consists of an almost globular mass of closely-overlapping bracts, the visible portions of which are dark brown or black fringes. The florets are generally all equal, but the outer ones are sometimes larger than the others, and sterile.
The Great Knapweed (_Centaurea Scabiosa_) is a somewhat similar plant, but usually larger, its stout, branched stem being generally two or three feet high. It may be easily distinguished by its larger flower-heads, the outer, neuter florets of which are considerably enlarged. As a rule the florets are all purple, but occasionally all are white, or the outer ones white and the others purple. The bracts of the involucre are broad, with a green centre and a dark, downy margin. The fruit is surmounted by a pappus of stiff, bristly hairs of about its own length. This plant is common in the south of Britain, and flowers during July and August.