TEAZLE FAMILY 



245 



2. ScABiosA (Scabious). — Leaves entire or pinnatifid ; heads 

 hemispherical or flat ; involucre of i or 2 whorls of bracts ; common 

 receptacle scaly ; involucel 8-angled, 4 — 5-Iobed ; outer florets often 

 larger and unsymmetrical ; calyx-tube contracted at the top ; limb 

 cup-shaped, with 4 — 5 stiff persistent bristles ; corolla 4 — 5-lobed, 

 sometimes bilabiate; fruit nearly cylindrical. (Name from the 

 Latin scabies, the leprosy, for which disease some of the species 

 were supposed to be a remedy.) 



1. S. Succisa (Premorse 

 or Devil's-bit Scabious). — 

 A slender, little-branched 

 plant, with a short and 

 abrupt rhizome, as if bitten 

 off (premorse) ; a hairy 

 stem; few, mostly entire, 

 oblong leaves; nearly glo- 

 bose heads of purplish-blue 

 or white flowers, with a 

 nearly symmetric, 4-cleft 

 corolla. — Heaths and pas- 

 tures ; abundant. John 

 Parkinson, in his " Thea- 

 trum Botanicum " (1640), 

 alludes to the fable " that 

 the Devile, envying the 

 good that this herbe might 

 do to mankinde, bit away 

 parte of the roote, and 

 thereof came the name 

 Succisa, Devil's-bit." — Fl. 

 July — October. Peren- 

 nial. 



2. 5. Columhdiia (Small 

 Scabious). — Well distin- 

 guished from the last by 

 its pinnatifid, lighter green 

 leaves ; heads flatter at first ; 



and flowers lilac, rather than purple, with a 5-cleft corolla, the 

 outer ones being larger and very unsymmetrical. — Pastures, 

 especially on a calcareous soil ; not uncommon.- — Fl. July — 

 September. Perennial. 



3. S. maritima, a species with all its leaves pinnatifid, an erect 

 branching panicle of heads, and a 5-cleft corolla, has been found 

 at St. Ouen's Bay, Jersey. 



SCABIOSA COLUMBARIA {Sjnall Scabwtts). 



