290 JASIONE. r^i'Ass V. ORDim r. 



Habitat. — Shallow parts of lakes, especially in mountainous dis- 

 tricts, in the Northern parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland; 

 common. 



Perennial ; flowering in July and August. 



This plant generally grows much crnnrird together, its numerous 

 leaves greatly matted, forming at the hottoiii of the lakes a thick layer, 

 the stems seldom reaching more than a few inches above the surface of 

 the water : they have not the power of elongation, as some plants have, of 

 raising themselves, in case of an increase of the waters ; but both the 

 leaves and stem are furnished, as is the case with all water plants, with 

 curious air cells. The corolla, and especially the stamens and pistil of 

 this genus, are of remarkable structure ; and the student, after their 

 minute examination, will, we doubt not, be ready to exclaim with 

 Byron, 



" true Wisdom's world will be 

 Within its own creation, or in thine, 

 Maternal Nature." 



GENUS XXX. JASrONE— Linn. Sheep's-bit. 



Nat. Ord. Campanula'ce^. Juss. 



Gen. Char. Calyx five-cleft. Corolla wheel-shaped, in five deep 

 narrow segnaents. Anthers united at the base. Stigma club- 

 shaped, bifid. Capsule two celled, opening at the apex. (Flowers 

 collected into a head with a many leaved involucrum). — Name 

 " supposed from lov, a violet, from the blue colour of its flowers, 

 applied by Pliny to some esculent plant." 

 1. J. monta'na, Linn. (Fig. 364.) Sheep^s-bit, or Sheep's Scabious. 

 Leaves linear, waved, hispid. Root annual. 



English Botany, t. 882.— English Flora, vol. i. p. 296.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 114.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 137. 



Root small, tapering. Stems erect, from one to two feet high, either 

 single, or numerous from the same root, simple, or much branched, 

 roundish, rough, with simple rigid hairs, leafy. Leaves alter- 

 nate, numerous, sometimes crowded, linear, obtuse, with a strong 

 mid-rib, and scattered over with hairs, the lower ones with a tapering 

 footstalk, the upper sessile, darker green above than beneath, the 

 margins slightly recurved, and mostly waved. Inflorescence capitate, 

 surrounded by an involucre of numerous ovate-lanceolate notched or 

 waved imbricated leaves. Flowers bright blue, densely crowded into 

 an hemispherical head, each flower elevated on a short slender foot- 

 stalk, and having a calyx of five narrow awl-shaped segments, seldom 



