AGERATUMS 259 
lance-shaped, glaucous; stem-leaves pinnately lobed, the segments very 
slender. Flower-heads 3 inches across, pale blue; involucre hairy, 
corollas five-parted; June to August. The var. elegans has whitish 
leaves, the upper ones undivided like the lower. 
S. WEBBIANA (Webb's). Stems 6 inches high. Leaves: lower ones 
stalked, oval with rounded teeth; upper with oval or oblong lobes 
arranged pinnately. Leaves and stems softly woolly. Flower-heads 
creamy yellow, on long stalks; July. 
Ordinary well-dug garden soils suffice for Scabiosa. 
The species described are quite hardy, and are grown 
without difficulty from seed sown in March or April. Occasionally the 
clumps may be divided, but we think it is preferable to keep them 
full-sized, and to propagate entirely by seeds. 
Description of Leaves and flowers of Scabiosa caucasica, natural size. 
Flate125. Fig. 1 is a flower separated from the outside of the head — 
with the corolla-lobes irregular (radiant); Fig. 2 is a flower fromthe 
centre (disk); Fig. 3 is a section of 2. It should be noted asa ready 
means of distinguishing between the Orders Dirsacea and CoMPosITz, 
which follows, that in the first the anthers are free, whilst in 
Composir& their bases are attached and they are usually joined 
together. : 
The Wild Teasel (Dipsacus sylvestris), which belongs to this Order, 
may be grown in the wild-garden if there is plenty of room to show off 
a clump of its tall, straight stems with bluish flower-heads and 
striking leaves. 
Cultivation. 
AGERATUMS 
Natural Order Composira. Genus A geratum 
AGERATUM (Greek, a, not, and geras, old age; from the absence of the 
white pappus usual in Composite fruits). A small genus (about sixteen 
species) of herbs and shrubs with opposite leaves and composite 
flower-heads, enclosed in a cup-shaped involucre formed of the floral 
bracts. The species are mostly natives of the hotter parts of America, but 
one species is of wide distribution in the warmer regions of the globe. 
There is some confusion in the records of the 
introduction of Ageratwms to this country, owing to the 
fact that one Species is described under several names. According to 
Loudon, A. conyzoides was the first arrival from America, in 1714; 
A. cerulewm from the West Indies in 1800, and A. mexicanwn from 
