DEVIL' S-BIT SCABIOUS. 147 



adherent together. The heads of flowers are almost globular ; 

 they are borne on long stalks that rise from the axils of 

 the upper leaves. On a closer examination it will be found 

 that these flower-heads are composed of numerous florets, 

 all very much the same size, the outer and lower ones being 

 perhaps a little larger, but not by any means in so marked 

 a degree as we find in the inflorescence of many flowers 

 built up of a mass of florets. The corolla is all in one 

 piece, like a convolvulus, but divided into four segments 

 or lobes, three being about equal in size, but the fourth, the 

 upper one, a little larger. The four stamens with which 

 each flower is provided are a very conspicuous feature, the 

 anthers being large, and borne upon filaments that are 

 almost as long again as the corolla. The plant is a perennial, 

 and flowers during July, August, September, and October. 



To entomologists the plant will have a certain interest, 

 as being the food of the Iarva3 of some few of our butter- 

 flies and moths; of these we need here only mention two. 

 The first of these is the larva of the beautiful Fritillary 

 butterfly, known to the men of science as Melit<%a Artemis. 

 The perfect insect is a rich orange-red, spotted and chequered 

 with black, and the caterpillar or larva is black, with a 

 lateral band of white spots. It is found on the scabious 

 and plantain during April. The second species is the moth 

 known as EupWiecia satyr at a. The larva will be found on 

 scabious during June. It is a whitish -grey in colour, a row 

 of ratker dull-red triangular spots being its only adornment. 



The plant derives its common name from an old belief 

 that " the divell," to quote an old writer, " for the envie 

 that he beareth to mankind, bit it off at the root, because it 

 would else be good for many uses." This legend seems to 

 have been very widely spread abroad, for the plant bears only 



