DIFSACAGE^. 



521 



with hairs. The leaves are opposite, penninerved, dentate or pinnatifid, 

 connate at the base, "which is dilated to a large membranous horn 

 concave above.' The flowers are united in terminal capitules, ovoid 

 or oblong, nearly globular 



in one species, D.piloSUS, ScaHosa atropurpurea. 



of which has been made 

 a genus Galedragon.^ The 

 thick axis of these capi- 

 tules bears numerous 

 jracts, alternate, imbri- 

 cate, often rigid at the 

 summit; and each flower,^ 

 furnished with an involu- 

 cel, occupies the aril of 

 one of these bracts. Often 

 those in the middle or at 

 the top of the inflores- 

 cence expand before those 

 at the base.* The ten or 

 twelve species' of the 

 genus inhabit Europe, 

 temperate Asia and most 

 regions of north-eastern 

 Africa. 



Scabiosa (fig. 41 5-422) 

 has nearly the flowers of 

 Dipsacus, having a shorter 

 corolla tube and more 

 open limb with four or 

 five lobes more unequal 

 and more developed as the flowers approach the base of the inflo- 



Fig. 416. Floriferous and fructiferous branch. 



' In this the rain-water collects, and the inte- 

 rior surface produces movable and retractile 

 processes -which Mr. F. Darwin has recently- 

 made a special object of study and which are 

 said to be formed of protoplastic matter. 



' Gray, Arr. Brit. PI. ii. 475. (This species 

 connects Dipsacus with Scabiosa and has also 

 been referred to Cephalaria.) 



^ Blue, whitish or lilac. 



* The blooming generally begins in the form 



of a ring near the middle of the inflorescence or 

 lower, and thence proceeds upwards and down- 

 wards. 



» Jacq. Fl. Amtr. t. 248, 402, 403.— Tkatt. 

 Tahul. t. 235. — Eeichb. Icon. Fl. Germ. t. 704- 

 707.— Wight, /ii. t. 130; Icon.i. 1166.— Kl. 

 Waldem. Seis. Bot. t. 84. — Boiss. Fl. Or. iii. 85. 

 — WiLLK. et LanGi Prodr. Fl. Hup. ii. 12. — 

 Geen. et GoDE. Fl. de Fr. ii. 67.— Walp. Sep. 

 ii. 632 ; Ann. ii, 802. 



