146 COROLLIFLORiE 



2. Scabiosa (Scabious) 



i. S. succisa (Premorse or Devil's-bit Scabious). Corolla 4-cleft, 

 nearly regular; heads nearly globose. A slender, little-branched 

 plant, with a hairy stem, few oblong, mostly entire leaves, and 

 terminal heads of purplish blue flowers. The root is solid and 

 abrupt, as if bitten off (premorse), which gave rise to the fable 

 alluded to by John Parkinson in his " Theatrum Botanicum " 

 (1640). He says " 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." Heaths and pastures ; 

 common. Fl. July to October. Perennial. 



2. S. Columbaria (Small Scabious). Corolla 5-cleft, the outer 

 flowers longest ; heads nearly globose ; root-leaves oblong, variously 

 cut ; upper pinnatifid. Well distinguished from the last by its 

 radiate flowers and cut leaves. The foliage is of a much lighter hue, 

 and the flowers lilac rather than purple. Pastures on chalky soil ; 

 not uncommon. Fl. July, August. Perennial. 



3. S. arvensis (Field Scabious). A tall bristly plant 2-3 feet high, 

 not much branched, bearing several large, handsome, convex heads 

 of lilac flowers, the inner flowers with 4-lobed, nearly regular corollas ; 

 the outer are larger and usually labiate. The root-leaves are simple, 

 the upper leaves pinnatifid. Cornfields and waysides ; common. 

 Fl. July, August. Perennial. 



Natural Order XLIV 



COMPOSITE. Compound Flowers 



This extensive and well-marked Order derives its name from 

 having its flowers compounded, as it were, of numerous smaller ones, 

 called florets, which are enclosed within a calyx-like assemblage of 

 bracts, termed an involucre. These bracts, usually called scales, 

 often overlap one another like the tiles of a house (Latin, imbrex, 

 a tile) ; hence they are said to be imbricated. The flowers vary 

 greatly in shape, but the following description will be found to in- 

 clude all the British species. Calyx rising from the top of the ovary 

 and becoming a pappus, that is, either a chaffy margin of the fruit, 

 or a tuft or ring of bristles, hairs, or feathery down ; corolla of 1 

 petal, either tubular or strap-shaped ; stamens 5, united by their 

 anthers (syngenesious) ; ovary inferior, 1 to each style, i-celled ; 

 style simple, with a simple or 2-cleft stigma, sheathed by the tube 

 of anthers ; fruit a solitary erect seed, crowned by the pappus, 

 which is sometimes merely a chaffy margin, but more frequently 

 an assemblage of simple, or serrated, or feathery hairs, sometimes 

 elevated on a stalk. For convenience of reference this Order is 

 divided into several Groups. 



