Vol. hi.] 



TEASEL FAMILY. 



249 



I. Scabiosa arvensis L. Field 

 Scabious. (Fig. 3483.) 



Scabiosa arz'eiisis L. Sp. PI. 99. 175.1. 

 Knau/ia arvensis Coult. Dips. 29. 1S23. 



Perennial, pubescent, simple or little branch- 

 ed, l°-3° high. Basal and lower leaves petioled, 

 lanceolate, acute or acuminate, entire, lobed, 

 or pinnatitid, 3'-S' long; upper leaves sessile, 

 often deeply pinuatifid; heads long-peduncled, 

 depressed-globose, I'-iyi' broad; flowers lilac- 

 purple, about 6" loug; receptacle depressed- 

 hemispheric, not scaly, covered with hairs be- 

 tween the flowers; achcne angled, crowned with 

 the S or 10 linear-subulate calyx-teeth. 



Tn cultivated fields and waste places, Massachu- 

 setts, Vermont, New York and Pennsylvania. Ad- 

 ventive from Europe. Other English names are 

 Blue Buttons, Blue Caps, Gipsy or Egyptian Rose, 

 Pincushion. June-Sept. 





2. Scabiosa australis Wulf. 

 Southern Scabious. (Fig. 3484.) 



Scabiosa australis Wulf. in Roem. Arch. 3: Part 3, 



316. 1803. 

 Succisa auslralis Reicheneb. Fl. Germ. Excurs. 



196. 1830. 



Perennial, puberulent, at least above; stem 

 slender, branched, iK°-3° high. Basal leaves 

 oblanceolate to oblong, mostly obtuse, \'-\l' 

 long, the petiole often as long as the blade, or 

 onger; stem leaves distant, lanceolate or ob- 

 long-lanceolate, entire, or toothed, short-peti- 

 oled, or the upper sessile, acute or acuminate; 

 heads of purple flowers long-peduncled, rather 

 less than \' in diameter, oblong-ovoid in fruit; 

 receptacle scaly, the scales about as long as the 

 involucels or longer; achene crowned with 5 

 calyx-teeth. 



Naturalized from Europe in central New York and 

 Massachusetts. Pincushion flower. Summer. 



Family 39. CUCURBIT ACEAE B. Juss. Hort. Trian. 1759. 



Gourd Family. 

 Climbing or trailing, herbaceous vines, usually with tendrils. Leaves alter- 

 nate, petioled, generally palmately lobed or dissected. Flowers solitary or race- 

 mose, monoecious or dioecious. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, its limb cam- 

 panulate or tubular, usually 5-lobed, the lobes imbricated. Petals usually 5, 

 inserted on the limb of the calyx, separate, or united into a gamopetalous cor- 

 olla. Stamens mostly 3 (sometimes ij, 2 of them with 2-celled anthers, the other 

 with a I -celled anther; filaments short, often somewhat monadelphous. Ovary i- 

 3-celled; style terminal, simple, or lobed; ovtiles few or numerous, anatropous. 

 Fruit a pepo, indehiscent, or rarely dehiscent at the summit, or bursting irregu- 

 larly; or sometimes dry and membranous. Seeds usually flat; endosperm none. 



About 90 genera and 650 species, mainly natives of tropical regions, a few in the temperate 

 zones. 



Flowers large, yellow; prostrate vine. i. Cucurbila. 



Flowers small, white or greenish; climbing vines. 



Fruit glabrous; seeds numerous, horizontal. 2. Melolhria. 



Fruit prickly; seeds i or few, erect or pendulous. 



Fruit dehiscent at the apex or bursting irregularly; several-seeded. 

 Leaves 3-7-lobed; antliers 3. 

 I.eaves digitately cotnpound; anther i. 

 Fruit indehiscent, i-sceded. 



Micrampelis. 

 Cyclantheta. 

 Sicyos. 



