SWEET SCABIOUS 



Calyx-tube. — Cup-shaped, bristly. 



Corolla. — Tubular, oblique, four to five cleft. 



Stamens. — Four, inserted on corolla tube. 



Style. — Club-shaped and protruding. 



Fruit. — Akene, its apex crowned with the persistent calyx-lobes. 



Sweet Scabious or Mourning Bride is a garden favorite because 

 of its easy culture, extended period of bloom, and richness of its 

 color range. 



Though closely allied to the composites and greatly resembling 

 them, it belongs to a small family known as Dipsacacea, or Teasels. 

 Indeed, Scahiosa, of which we have two native species, and Dip- 

 sacus are the only genera of the family growing in this country. 

 The principal distinction between these and the composites lies 

 in the condition of the anthers, which in the composites are united 

 into a tube while in the Teasels they are free. 



The flower-head of Sweet Scabious consists of many florets 

 with four-lobed corollas, of which each outer row is larger than the 

 others and increasingly so as they proceed from the centre to the 

 circumference. These corollas are of varying length, with wide, 

 funnel-like mouths, so that their nectar is accessible to short- 

 tongued and long-tongued insects alike; hence the flowers are 

 visited by all the insect tribe who love honey and have wings. The 

 nectar is poured out by the upper part of the ovary and is pro- 

 tected against unwelcome visitors — ants and the hke — by the hairy 

 lining of the corolla tube. The florets develop gradually, so that 

 the whole head offers attractions to its insect friends for a consider- 

 able time, consequently they return to the same head day after day. 

 The anthers in each floret mature and shed their pollen one at a 

 time; afterward the styles lengthen and the stigmas mature simul- 

 taneously with the result that a bee well dusted with poUen could 

 easily fertilize all the florets of a flower-head. 



In our gardens the plant is known as Mourning Bride; in Europe, 

 Mournful Widow is the accepted name. It seems that the flower- 

 heads are extensively used in southern Europe for funeral wreaths, 

 whence the name. 



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