TEASEL TRIBE 121 



herb. The strange and, as it appears to us, profane notion seems to have 

 been also shared on the Continent, for one of the French names of the plant 

 is still Mors de JDiable, and the Dutch call it Duvelles bit. It is, however, more 

 generally in France now called La Scahieuse, and in Holland Schurftkruicl. It 

 is the Scabiosa of the Italians ; the Escabiosa of the Spanish ; and the Skabiose 

 of the Grcrmans, these names all referring to its general use in cutaneous dis- 

 orders, for which it is highly extolled by Etmiiller. The root is slightly 

 bitter and asti'ingent. Linnajus says that the dried leaves are used to dye 

 wool of a yellow or green colour. The beautiful and fragrant Scabious of our 

 gardens (>S'. atro-purpurea), the Mourning Bride, as the flower is often called, 

 affords an excellent green dye, and it has been suggested that it might yield 

 a good ingredient for tanning leather. 



2. Small Scabious {S. columbaria). — Corolla 5-cleft, downy, the outer 

 Mowers longest; heads nearly globose; root-leaves oblong, variously cut, 

 upper leaves pinnatifid ; root perennial. This species is common on grassy 

 lands, especially on those of the east coast of England. Its purplish-lilac 

 flowers, with yellow anthers, have a more radiant form, as if more fully 

 expanded, than those of the premorse kind. Its leaves, too, are of a lighter 

 hue, the flowers much paler, and the whole plant stouter. Its stem is about 

 a foot high, and it flowers in July and August. 



3. Knautia (Knautia). 



Field Knautia {K. arvdnsis). — Lower leaves simple, slightly serrated, 

 and hairy ; stem-leaves pinnatifid ; stem not much branched, bristly ; inner 

 calyx with a fringe of 8 — 16 awned teeth ; root perennial. This tall and 

 handsome plant often overtops the ripening corn in June and July, or is 

 levelled with it by the reaper a month later. The flowers are so much like 

 those of the scabious, that the plant was long retained in that genus, and 

 called Scabiosa arvensis. It grows, too, very commonly in meadows in all 

 parts of the kingdom, and we might say with the American poet, Lowell, as 

 we look at some gathered or stray blossom — 



" Then think I of deep shadows in the grass, 

 Of meadows where in sun the cattle graze ; 



Where as \}\e breezes pass, 

 The gleaming rushes bend a thousand ways : — • 



Of leaves that slumber in a cloudy mass, 

 Or whiten in the wind : — of waters blue, 

 That from the distance sparkle through 

 Some woodland gap : — and of a sky above, 

 Where one light cloud, like a stray lamb, doth move." 



The flowers of the Knautia are large and convex, the outer florets being 

 larger and bluer than the inner ones, and cut into u.iequal segments. It 

 forms a beautiful addition to the wild nosegay gathered at this season, and it 

 is amusing to see how, under the influence of tobacco smoke, the petals 

 gradually assume a rich light-green colour, and seem at first uninjured by the 

 process, though they wither soon after. Several bluish-lilac flowers are 

 affected in a similar way by the influence of this smoke ; and a purple violet, 

 if placed in a bottle containing smelling-salts, soon assumes a most singular 

 and beautiful green tint. 



II.— IG 



