252 ENGLISII BOTANY. 



Rootstock woody. Stem 6 inches to 2 feet high, branched 

 usually from about the middle or below it, slender, round, sparingly 

 hairy. Leaves very variable, 2 to 6 inches long, downy or glabrous ; 

 stem-leaves almost always divided into slender segments. Peduncles 

 very long and slender. Flower-beads f to 1^ inch across. Flowers 

 bluish-lilac, more rarely lilac ; the exterior corollas very irregular, 

 with the three lower segments enlarged, the interior ones more nearly 

 regular, all pubescent on the outside. Involucel sub-cylindrical, 

 enlarged upwards, -fa inch long, with 8 very deep furrows separated 

 by hairy ridges ; limb semi-transparent, white. Calyx-teeth in fruit 

 setaceous, rough with small points directed upwards, very dark- 

 purple. 



M. Jordan divides this plant into a number of species, which, 

 even with the aid of authenticated specimens, I am unable to 

 separate from each other. 



Small Scabious. 



French, Scabiev.se Colvmbaire. German, Tauben-Skabiose, 



Sub-Genus III.— KNATJTIA. Coult. 



Clinanth without scales, but thickly clothed with hairs, and 

 surrounded by a polyphyllous pericline. Involucel substipitate, 

 with 4 very broad shallow furrows ; limb with 4 herbaceous teeth. 

 Calyx-limb with 8 to 16 setaceous sub-erect teeth. Corolla-limb 

 4- or 5-cleft, radiant. 



SPECIES III— SCABIOSA ARVENSIS. Linn. 



Plate DCLXXIX. 



lieich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XII. Tab. DCLXXX. Fi s . 1353. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2486. 

 Knautia arvensis, Cuu.lt. Dips. p. 29, et Auct. Plur. 



Rootstock perennial, not premorse. Leaves oblanceolate, the 

 radical ones shortly stalked, undivided and entire or crenate 

 pinnatifid ; stem-leaves generally deeply pinnatilid, the uppermost 

 ones mostly strapshaped and entire. Antbodes radiant, convex 

 in flower and fruit. Leaves of the involucre (pericline) ovate or 

 lanceolate-ovate, in 2 rows. Limb of the involucel herbaceous, 

 of 4 very indistinct teeth. Calyx-teeth erect, rather shorter than 

 the tube when in fruit, deciduous. Corolla-limb 4-lobed, witli 

 the lobes unequal, especially in the exterior flowers which are con- 

 spicuously radiant. 



