VALERIANACEAE. 



375 



Centranthus ruber (L.) DC, Centranthus, European, has the leaves 

 mostly entire, ovate to lanceolate, the rose or white flowers panieled; it is 

 occasionally grown in flower-gardens. [Valeriana rubra L.] 



Family 2. DIPSACACEAE Lindl. 

 Teasel Family. 



Herbs, with opposite or rarely verticillate leaves, and perfect flowers 

 in dense involucrate heads. Stipules none. Flowers borne on an elongated 

 or globose receptacle, braeted and involueellate. Calyx-tube adnate to the 

 ovary, its limb cup-shaped, disk-shaped, or divided into spreading bristles. 

 Corolla epigynous, the limb 2-5-lobed. Stamens 2-4, inserted on the tube 

 of the corolla and alternate with its lobes ; filaments distinct ; anthers versa- 

 tile. Ovary inferior, 1-celled; style filiform; stigma undivided, terminal, 

 or oblique and lateral; ovule 1, anatropous. Fruit an achene, its apex 

 crowned with the persistent calyx-lobes. Seed-coat membranous; endo- 

 sperm fleshy; embryo straight. About 7 genera and 140 species, of the 

 Old World. 



1. SCABlbSA [Tourn.] L. 



Herbs, with opposite leaves, no prickles, and blue, pink, or white flowers 

 in peduncled involucrate heads. Bracts of the involucre herbaceous. Scales 

 of the receptacle small, capillary, or none. Involucels 2-8-ribbed, the margins 

 4-toothed or expanded. Calyx4imb 5-toothed. Limb of the corolla 4-5-cleft, 

 oblique or 24ipped. Stamens 4 (rarely 2). Stigma oblique or lateral. Achene 

 adnate to the involucel, crowned with the persistent calyx. [Latin, scale, from 

 its repute as a remedy for scaly eruptions.] About 75 species, natives of the 

 Old World. Type species. Scabiosa arvensis L. 



1. Scabiosa nitens E. & S. Azorean 

 Scabious. (Fig. 408.) Perennial, nearly 

 glabrous, slender, little branched, about 

 1° high. Basal and lower leaves spatu- 

 late or oblong-spatulate lV-2y long, ob- 

 tuse, dentate above the middle, narrowed 

 into ciliate, margined petioles; upper 

 leaves linear, narrower than the basal 

 ones but sometimes longer, sessile or 

 nearly so, acute or acuminate; heads 

 long-peduncled ; bracts of the involucre 

 linear, ciliate, acutish, 9"-12" long; 

 flowers purple, about 6" long, the corolla 

 pubescent. 



Roadside north of Camden Marsh, 

 1912. Introduced. Native of the Azores. 

 Flowers in summer and autumn. 



Scabiosa atropurpurea L., Sweet Scabious, European, grown in flower- 

 gardens, is annual, with dentate basal and lower leaves, the upper pinnately 

 parted, the bracts of the involucre little, if any, longer than the purple, pink 

 or white flowers. [S. maritima L.] 



