320 THE SCABIOUS FAMILY. 



divisions, the two upper ones smaller, and forming an upper lip, the 

 three lower ones larger, and diverging, so as to form a three-cleft and 

 pendulous lower lip. Here, moreover, the grains of pollen are oval, 

 whereas in the Campanulas they are spherical, and the corollas are 

 often of a fine bright red, a tint unknown among the bell-flowers. 

 They prefer countries within or upon the borders of the tropics, 

 numbering three or four hundred species, and are in every case to be 

 suspected, if not positively dangerous, on account of the excessive 

 acridity of their milky juice. 



Two grow wild in England, but neither of them near Manchester, 

 where the family is represented only in the superb crimson cardinal- 

 flowers, LoMlia fulgens and LoUlia splendens ; the pretty little blue 

 LoUlia helUdijoUa; the elegant blue and white-flowered annuals 

 called Clintdnia ; and the handsome red and orange-coloured Sipho- 

 campylus. The last-named is confined to the green-house. 



XCVI.— THE SCABIOUS FAMILY. Bipsdcece. 



Herbaceous plants, one to four feet high, in foreign countries some- 

 times undershrubby. Leaves opposite, simple, undivided, or pinnatifid. 

 Flowers numerous, small, collected, like those of the Composittc, into 

 dense heads, which are either conical or hemispherical, and surrounded 

 by a many-leaved basket. Peduncles of the heads usually six or eight 

 inches long. Calyx like that of the composites ; corolla like that of 

 the tubular florets of the same plants, but irregular, and often only 

 four-lobcd. Stamens four, their anthers wholly xmconnected, and 

 often with long filaments, which throw up the anthers like a fine lilac 

 or white powder on the mass of blossoms. Pistil one ; stigma not 

 cleft ; ovary one-celled, with a single ovule, and ripening into a dry 

 achenium, crowned by the permanent calyx as in the composites. 

 Every floret is inserted into a small basket of its own, having the 

 appearance of an outer calyx. The opposite leaves distinguish them 

 from such of the Parsley Family as have the flowers in compact heads, 

 the Eryngo for example. 



About one hundred and fifty of these plants are known, natives 

 principally of the countries bordering the Mediterranean. Their pro- 

 perties are unimportfint, though their flowers, which are lilac, white, 

 rosy, or purple, are often gay and ornamental. Six grow wild in 

 England, five of them occurring near Manchester. 



