46 FLOWERS OF THE FIELDS AND MEADOWS 



Gerarde remarks, " The whole tuft (of flowers) is drawn together when 

 the seede is ripe, resembling a bird's nest". He speaks of it as "serv- 

 ing for love matters ". 



The Wild Carrot is the origin of the garden forms. It contains 

 much sugar, and a spirit has been prepared from it. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



132. Daucus Carota, L. Root long, stem erect, rigid, downy, leaves 

 tripinnate, leaflets pinnatifid, flowers white, central red, in large umbels, 

 with trifid bracts below. 



Devil's Bit Scabious (Scabiosa succisa, L.) 



In Interglacial beds at West Wittering seeds of the Devil's Bit 

 Scabious have been met with. It is found to-day throughout the 

 Northern Temperate and Arctic Zones in Arctic Europe, Siberia, and 

 N. Africa. Devil's Bit Scabious is found in every part of Great 

 Britain, ascending to 2500 ft. in the Highlands. 



This plant is a meadow species growing in fields and meadows at 

 low as well as high elevations. It forms quite a feature of the fields 

 laid to grass in summer, and is equally common upon the hillsides and 

 along the roads and lanes all over the country, being widely dispersed 

 and growing in some quantity. 



The tall -flowered stems of this plant are conspicuous in the 

 meadows in summer, and are easily recognized by the mode of branch- 

 ing of the flowering stems. The stem is simple that is, not branched 

 below, but branched above. The smooth leaves are hairy, are narrowly 

 elliptical, egg-shaped at the base, the stem-leaves being linear and 

 nearly entire. 



Its principal feature, however, is its blunt rootstock, termed pre- 

 morse, as though bitten off abruptly below, hence the name. 



The beautiful lilac or blue flowers are borne on hemispherical 

 heads, which have numerous bracts below, and the flower-stalks are 

 long. The flowerhead contains many florets in its involucre or whorl 

 of floral organs. The outer involucre or whorl of leaflike organs has 

 membranous plaited scaly bracts, the receptacle being hemispherical. 

 The corolla is equal and 4-cleft. The calyx is crowned by five 

 bristles ; the fruit is sub-cylindrical, with eight furrows. 



The plant is about 18 in. in height. The flowers are late, 

 opening in August, up to October. It is a perennial plant, increasing 

 by division. 



The flowerhead is hemispherical, the florets all one size, 50-80, 



