48 ILOWl-'.US Ol' TH1-: lll'.I.ns AND MKADOWS 



a black powtlcT)- mass. Jh-oiiia lacliica- and J'uiciii.ui liicracii also 

 infest it. 



Meligcilics lidois, a beetle, two Hymenoptera {.l iidroia haltorjiaua, 

 .1. cctii), the Lepidoptera Neiiiatois capriascllits, I'lcroplionts serotinus. 

 Mc/i///s arlcDiis, Satyr Pug {Eiipitkccia Salyrahi), two Homoptera 

 {Eiiptfrvx Icucl/a. Aphalara iicrvosn), are associated with this as a 

 food plant. 



Scabiosa. Brunfels, is so named trom IxinLjor ha\in^' been a remedy 

 for scab, scd/yics; antl siuiisa, buihs. is Latin tnr cut off below, in 

 allusion to the premorse rootstock. it has man\' names: Bachelor's 

 Buttons, Blue-ball, lilue-bannets, Blue Bonnets, Blue Buttons, Blue- 

 caps, Blue-heads. Blue-kiss, Blue-tops, Bunds, Bundweed, Carl-doddie, 

 Curl-doddy, Devil's Bit. Devil's Bit Scabious. Fire-leaves, horbete, 

 I'^orebit, Forebitten More, Gentleman's Buttons, Hardhead, Woolly 

 More, Hanlhead, Herbyw Ofbit, Remcope, Stinkini^' Xancy. 



As to the Blue Bonnets, Jameson says: " In Gothland in Sweden 

 this plant has a fanciful name somewhat similar. Baltsman's Mys.sa, the 

 Boatsman's cap or mutch"; and he says of the name Curl Doddy, 

 " The provincial name is derived from the resemblance of the head 

 of flowers to the curlv pate ot a boy, and is very ancient '. Children in 

 Fife thus address it: 



Cx\x\ doddy do my Ijiddin, 



Soop my house, and shool my midden; 



and as it untwists in the hand they say: 



Curl doddy on the midden, 

 Turn round and take my biddin. 



The name Devil's l)it is from the legend that the root was bitten 

 off by the devil, who wished to destroy its properties, "for he needed 

 it not to make him sweat who is always tormented with fear of the 

 Day of Judgement", says Gerarde, who says he bit it from envy. 



Devil's Bit Scabious yields a yellow and green dye. The j)lant 

 is highly bitter, and it has been usetl for tanning. .Swellings in the 

 throat, Gerarde says, were cured by it. 



EssENTi.\L Specific Characters: — 



148. Scabiosa siurisa. L.— Rootstock premorse, stem erect, simple, 

 leaves entire. i:)blong, upper narrower, flowers blue, all alike, corolla 

 4-cleft, involucel hairy, fruit subglobose. 



