THE SCABIOUS TRIBE. 17^ 



are many species, occur on banks, heaths, and even 

 walls, and are among the most common of plants. 

 One of them, Galium verum, with loose bunches of 

 pretty yellow flowers, is, in some counties, called 

 Cheese-rennet y because of its having been formerly em- 

 ployed to curdle milk. Woodruffs a native rival in 

 fragrance to the Heliotrope, is the Asperula odorata; 

 it is found occasionally in woods, and is known by the 

 long tube to its corolla, and the four small deciduous 

 teeth of its calyx ; otherwise it is very nearly a Galium. 

 Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis) has a little purple 

 blossom, and its fruit is terminated by the four per- 

 manent teeth of its calyx; it is a common annual in 

 dry fields. 



I need not ask if you have forgotten Compound 

 flowers (Vol. I. p. 199. Plate XVII. 1.), for they are of 

 such common occurrence, that to have had them once 

 pointed out is to know them for ever. But I may ask 

 if you recollect exactly what their structure is, because 

 there are plants very like them at first sight, and 

 which you must know how to distinguish. For ex- 

 ample, Astrantia, which is one of the Umbelliferous 

 Tribe, and Gilia, belonging to the Greek Valerians, 

 have their flowers in heads, and might be taken for 

 Compound flowers by an incautious observer. They 

 are not, however, so likely to deceive you as the plants 

 of the Scabious Tribe to which I have once already 

 casually referred (Vol. I. jj. 208.), and of which it is 

 now time to speak more particularly. 



Pwyle, or Sweet Scabious (Scabiosa atropurpurea), 



