BRITISH FLORA 



Scabious. The habit is erect. The rootstock is 

 woody and tufted. The stem is simple or branched 

 above, hairy above, with hairs pointing down- 

 wards. The radical leaves are on long 1 stalks, 

 narrow, blunt, scalloped, entire or lobed, with the 

 uppermost lobe larger ; the upper stem-leaves are 

 divided nearly to the base, with linear segments. 

 They are usually downy. The florets are 5-lobed, 

 lilac, or lilac-blue, collected into a conspicuous head, 

 the involucel notched, with 8 furrows, the outer 

 corollas larger, irregular. The 4-5 bristles of the 

 calyx do not fall. The fruit has a short beak, and 

 is inversely egg-shaped or rounded. The plant is 

 i-j ft. high, flowering bet ween July and September, 

 and is a herbaceous perennial. 



ORDER COMPOSITE 



Sneezewort (Achtliea Plarmica, L.). The habi- 

 tat of this plant is meadows, pastures, waste places, 

 hedgerows, moist places, and thickets. The habit 

 is erect, the stem rigid, ribbed, with few branches. 

 The plant is smooth or downy. The leaves are 

 shining, linear lance-shaped, with few small coarse 

 teeth, stalkless, and distant. The flowerheads are 

 few, in corymbs, with white florets, those of the 

 disk greenish -white, tubular, bisexual, those of 

 the ray white, 8-12. The fruit is smooth, shining, 

 without pappus. The plant is 1-2 ft. in height. 

 It flowers later than Milfoil, and has larger flower- 

 heads. Sneezewort is a herbaceous perennial. 



St James's Ragwort (Senecto Jacobcea> L.). 

 The habitat of this plant is pastures, roadsides, 

 waste ground, sand dunes, &c. The habit is erect. 

 The stem is tall, smooth, finely furrowed, rarely 

 cottony, with numerous leaves. The radical leaves 

 are lyrate, divided nearly to the base, with lobes 

 larger towards the extremity, but the terminal one 

 in this case smallest, toothed, the upper clasping, 

 sessile or stalkless, the lower oblong, stalked. The 

 flowerheads are in large corymbs, erect, with 

 spreading rays, yeliow, the fruit of the disk having 

 pappus, that of the ray being smooth. The plant 

 is 1-4 ft. in height, and flowers between June and 

 September, being a herbaceous perennial. 



Carline Thistle (Carlina vulgaris, L.). The 

 habitat of this plant is dry fields and pastures, 

 and sandy heaths. The habit is erect. The stem 

 is cottony, stout, branched, with corymbose heads, 

 purplish or yellow. The radical leaves are lance- 

 shaped, spreading, armed with spines, green above, 

 cottony below. The stem-leaves are half-clasping, 

 shorter, numerous. The flowers are purple, the 

 heads many, the corollas all tubular. The outer 

 involucral bracts are divided nearly to the base, 

 and fringed with hairs; the inner are white and 

 linear. The whole plant is spinous, the spines 

 serving as an adaptation to dry-soil conditions 

 and as a protection from cattle and creeping in- 

 sects. The fruit is brown, silky, with hairs divided 

 into two nearly to the base. The pappus is in 

 I row, feathery, united into groups of 3 or 4 at 

 the base. The plant is 6 in. to ij ft., and flowers 

 in July till October, being a biennial and her- 

 baceous. 



Marsh Thistle (Cniats paluslris, Scop.). The 

 habitat of this plant is wet meadows, ditches, and 

 moist woods. The habit is erect. The stem is 

 solitary, soft, stout, slightly branched, with many 

 wavy spines, winged. The leaves are spinous, 

 lance-shaped, running down the stem, deeply di- 

 vided to the base, the lobes 2-3-fid, the segments 

 narrow-pointed, hairy both sides, cottony below. 

 The heads are in terminal, small, leafy clusters, 

 the florets dark-purple or white. The involucre is 

 cottony, ovoid, crowded. The phyllaries are ovate 

 to lance-shaped, closely pressed, the outer blunt- 

 pointed, the inner narrow-pointed, purplish-green. 

 The fruit is pale, narrow, smooth, with a dirty- 

 white pappus. The plant is 2-4 ft. high, flowering 

 between July and September, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Brown Knapweed (Centaurea Jacea, L.). This 

 plant is an alien, or native perhaps, in meadows 

 in Sussex. The leaves are linear to lance-shaped, 

 the lower leaves broader, toothed. The flower- 

 heads are purple, radiant. The involucre is not 

 spinous. The appendages of the phyllaries are 

 entire or rarely cut, erect, rounded. The outer 

 phyllaries have appendages deeply divided nearly 

 to the base, the inner are few, entire, the rest 

 irregularly cut. There is no pappus. The plant 

 is 1-1^ ft. high, flowering from July to September, 

 and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Hardheads (Centaurea Scabiosa, L.). The 

 habitat of this plant is dry pastures and waste 

 places. The habit is erect, with grooved stems, 

 with soft hair, with few branches. The leaves 

 are deeply divided nearly to the base, with in- 

 versely egg-shaped segments, which are entire or 

 lobed. The flowerheads are large and purple, the 

 flower-stalks smooth, with an outer row of sterile 

 florets. The brown involucral bracts have fringed 

 downy tips and margins. The grey, downy fruit 

 has pappus of the same length. The plant is 

 2-3 ft. in height, flowering between July and Sep- 

 tember, and is a herbaceous perennial. 



Saw-wort (Serratula tincloria, L.). The habi- 

 tat of this plant is fields and dry pastures and 

 woods. The habit is erect. The stem is smooth, 

 slender, rigid, grooved, with numerous leaves, and 

 the heads are in corymbs. The leaves are lobed, 

 with the distant lobes larger towards the extremity; 

 divided nearly to the base, coarsely toothed. The 

 oblong flowerheads are terminal corymbs, with 

 purple flowers. There are scales between the 

 florets. The fruit is grey, smooth, will) many 

 rows of dirty-white pappus. It is 2-3 ft. high. 

 It flowers late, in August, and is a herbaceous 

 perennial. 



Woolly -headed Thistle (Cniais eriofihorus, 

 Roth). The habitat of this plant is pastures, 

 roadsides, waste dry places, often near the coast. 

 The habit is erect. The tall stems are not winged, 

 furrowed, hairy, much branched, above. The 

 leaves are rough above, downy beneath, deeply 

 divided nearly to the base, half-clasping the base, 

 not running down the stem. The flowerheads are 

 large, woolly, the woolly involucre rounded, the 

 florets purple, the phyllaries lance-shaped, having 



