IN THE MEADOWS AND PASTURES. 167 



Its serrated ovate leaflets are situated on each side of 

 a leaf-stalk. Its old name of bloodwort pointed to its 

 real or supposed use as a styptic. 



Midsummer will scarcely have passed ere the great 

 Ox-eye Daisy (Ohrysanthemtm leucanthemtm)m\\ stare 

 boldly from the sides of the dry pastures. Sometimes 

 it overtops the grass, and often shows its broad yellow 

 disk and white rays on the sides of railway embank- 

 ments. 



The Black Knapweed (Gentaurea nigra), withits hard, 

 knobby, thistle-like head, covered with black scales and 

 crowned with purple florets, stands sturdily above the 

 pastures. Its dull-looking head has not the handsome 

 rav-like fringe of florets of the Greater Knapweed (Gen- 

 taurea scdbiosa) , the flowers of which are a deep lilac 

 tint, but the scales of the involucre, or head, are more 

 cottony. This plant is the mattefelon of our ancestors, 

 and is noticed in one of the earliest books extant as 

 " bolwede " and " cowede," and as having " leaves ylike 

 to scabyose." This is also a flower of the pasture, field, 

 and meadow. The Premorse or " Devil's-bit" Scabious 

 (Scabiosa succisd), which received its common name 

 from the fact of its root having the appearance of 

 being bitten or cut off abruptly, has somewhat stiff 



