XtS TEASEL FAMILY. 



3. PEDIA, CORN SALAD, LAMB-LETTUCE. (Origin of the name 



obscure.) Our sj)ecies are all very much alike in appearance, smooth, with 

 forking stems 6' - 20' high, tender oblong leaves either entire or cut-lobed 

 towards the base, and small flowers in clusters or close cymes, with leafy 

 bracts, and a short white or whitish corolla, in early summer. They 

 belong to the section (by most botanists regarded as a separate genus) 

 Valerianella. ® @ 

 P. olitdria, Common Corn Salad of Eu., sparingly naturalized in 



the Middle States, has fruit broader than long, and a thick corky mass at the 



back of the fertile cell. 



P. Pagopyrum, from New York W. in low grounds, has ovate-triangular 



smooth fruit shaped like a grain of buckwheat when dry (whence the specific 



name), the confluent empty cells occupying one angle, and much smaller than 



the broad and flat seed. 



P. radi^ta, common from Penn. and Michigan S., has fruit mostly downy 



and somewhat 4-angled, the parallel naiTow empty cells contiguous but with 



a deep groove between them. 



60. DIPSACE^, TEASEL FAMILY. 



Differs from the preceding family by having the flowers strictly 

 in heads, surrounded by an involucre, as in the next family, — from 

 which it differs in the separate stamens, banging seed, &c. All 

 are natives of the Old World. 



1. DIPSACUS. Coarse and stout herbs, with stems and midrib of leaves often 



prickly, and the heads with rigid prickly-pointed bracts or chaff under each 

 flower, under the whole a conspicuous leafy involucre. Each flower more- 

 over has an involucel in the form of a little calyx-like body enclosing the 

 ovary and akene. Calyx continued beyond the ovary into a mere truncate 

 short cup-like border. Corolla slender, with 4 short lobes. Stamens 4. 

 Style slender. 



2. SCABIOSA. Less coarse, not prickly; the short heads surrounded by a softer 



green involucre; a short scale or soft bristle for a bract under each flower. 

 Corolla funnel-form, 4 - 5-cleft, oblique or irregular; the outer ones often 

 enlarged. Stamens 4. Style slender. Involucel enclosing the ovary and 

 the calyx various. 



1. DIPSACUS, TEASEL. (Name from Greek word meaning to </^?rs<; the 

 united bases of the leaves in the common species catch some rain-water.) 

 Fl. summer. 



D. sylv6stris. Wild T. Run wild along roadsides, 4° -5° high, prickly, 

 with lancc-oblong leaves, the upper ones united round the stem, large oblong 

 heads, purplish or lilac corollas, and slender-pointed straight chaff under each 

 flower. @ 



D. fuUdnum, Fuller's T. Less prickly than the other, with involucre 

 hardly longer than the flowers, the awn-like tips of the rigid chaflf hooked at 

 the end, wliich makes the teasel useful for carding woollen cloth : cultivated in 

 fields for this pui-pose, sometimes escaping into waste places and roadsides. @ 



2. SCABIOSA, SCABIOUS. (FromLatin word for .scw/l/, perhaps from 

 use of the plants to cure skin-diseases.) Fl. summer. One iEuropcan species 

 is commonly cultivated for ornament, viz. 



S. atropurptirea, Sweet S., or when with dark purple or crimson 

 flowers called Moitrxing Bride ; the flowers are sometimes rose-colored or even 

 white: plant 1°- 2° high, with obovate or spatulate and toothed root-leaves, 

 pinnately-parted stem-leaves, the cup or involiu'.cl enclosing the ovary 8-grooved, 

 calyx ])ropcr with 5 long bristles surmounting the akene ; the outer corollas 

 enlarged. (J) 



