COMPOSIT.E. 149 



root -leaves and pinnate stem -leaves; the stems branching 

 freely, and each branch ending in a considerable head of pale- 

 purple flowers, appearing in July and August. Height about 

 18 inches or 2 feet. Native of Hungary. 



S. graminifolia {Grass-like Scabious) grows about i foot high, 

 producing tufts of handsome, very narrow, lance-shaped leaves, 

 clothed with hoary down. The stems bear each a single pale- 

 blue flower-head. They appear in June and July. Native of 

 Switzerland. 



S. Webbiana ( IVebb's Scabious). — This is a very dwarf species, 

 producing short roundish root-leaves, wrinkled and hoary with 

 down. The flowers are white, and appear in July and August. 

 Height about 6 or 9 inches. Native of Mount Ida. 



COMPOSITE. 



This is a vast natural order. It is computed by De Can- 

 dolle to comprise upwards of 9000 species, or about a twelfth 

 part of the whole known vegetable kingdom. Of this immense 

 number of forms there are upwards of 1000 in cultivation in 

 botanic gardens in this country. The fine collection in the her- 

 baceous department in Kew Gardens contained above that num- 

 ber of species of Composite plants fourteen years ago; and con- 

 siderable additions will no doubt have been made since then, 

 by the introduction of new species which explorations in various 

 parts of the world have brought to light. In an order so ex- 

 tensive, there must, of course, be many worthless weedy plants, 

 looked at from a floricultural point of view ; but it cannot be 

 but that there should also be a large number of beautiful subjects 

 adapted to a great variety of purposes. The general impression, 

 however, is, that the Composites are a horde of barbarians, which 

 no sane gardener would admit within the boundaries of the 

 refined circles of cultivated Flora ; only a few, the Dahlia and 

 a limited number of hardy and tender annuals, being thought 

 worthy of that distinction, out of hundreds of species not in- 

 ferior to many popular occupants of high places in flower-gar- 

 dens at the present time. The CojnpositcE give us subjects 

 beautiful and gay, of all aspects and many degrees of stature, 

 and great variety of habit of growth. Yellow is the predomin- 

 ant colour, and white is abundant ; blues and purples are more 

 rare, and reds the rarest of any. There are many noble-foliaged 

 plants, and odd and curious ones too, which are quite as eligible 



