48 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



a black powdery mass. Bremia lactucce and Puccinia hieracii also 

 infest it. 



Meligethes lidens, a beetle, two Hymenoptera (Andrena hattorfiana, 

 A. cetii), the Lepidoptera Nematois capriasellus, Pterophorus serotimis, 

 Melittis artemis, Satyr Pug (Eupithecia Satyr ata}, two Homoptera 

 (Eupteryx tenella, Apkalara nervosa), are associated with this as a 

 food plant. 



Scabiosa, Brunfels, is so named from being or having been a remedy 

 for scab, scabies; and succisa, Fuchs, is Latin for cut off below, in 

 allusion to the premorse rootstock. It has many names: Bachelor's 

 Buttons, Blue-ball, Blue-bannets, Blue Bonnets, Blue Buttons, Blue- 

 caps, Blue-heads, Blue-kiss, Blue-tops, Bunds, Bundweed, Carl-doddie, 

 Curl-doddy, Devil's Bit, Devil's Bit Scabious, Fire-leaves, Forbete, 

 Forebit, Forebitten More, Gentleman's Buttons, Hardhead, Woolly 

 More, Hardhead, Herbyw Of bit, Remcope, Stinking Nancy. 



As to the Blue Bonnets, Jameson says: " In Gothland in Sweden 

 this plant has a fanciful name somewhat similar, Baltsman's Myssa, the 

 Boatsman's cap or mutch "; and he says of the name Curl Doddy, 

 " The provincial name is derived from the resemblance of the head 

 of flowers to the curly pate of a boy, and is very ancient ". Children in 

 Fife thus address it: 



Curl doddy do my biddin, 



Soop my house, and shool my midden; 



and as it untwists in the hand they say: 



Curl doddy on the midden, 

 Turn round and take my biddin. 



The name Devil's Bit is from the legend that the root was bitten 

 off by the devil, who wished to destroy its properties, "for he needed 

 it not to make him sweat who is always tormented with fear of the 

 Day of Judgement", says Gerarde, who says he bit it from envy. 



Devil's Bit Scabious yields a yellow and green dye. The plant 

 is highly bitter, and it has been used for tanning. Swellings in the 

 throat, Gerarde says, were cured by it. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



148. Scabiosa succisa, L. Rootstock premorse, stem erect, simple, 

 leaves entire, oblong, upper narrower, flowers blue, all alike, corolla 

 4-cleft, involucel hairy, fruit subglobose. 



