fe * Tri VEGETABLE 6 YSTEM.,: 
oy DRUGGED SCABLOUS. 
Flate 34. 
Character of the Species, ee , -_- Scabiofa Lanata. 
"The Leaves are avals and covered with =% rough woolly matter. 
| Plate 33. @ 6. 
Tuis is a Perennial, native of the Cape of Good Hope, ae in appearance to moft 
of the Cape Plants, but of a rough and robuft afpect, which to the curious eye, furpafies 
beauty. To defcribe it, will be to fay; that it has neither fotm nor colour, delicacy t nor’ 
fimplicity ; but to look upon it, is to be aftonifhed ; and whoever ieee: it, Knows there: iS 
Pingtung in the afpect 2 a Plant fuperior to beauty. : 
| Ir rifes to ee more than a fonts in heighth ; ; Sh though its Stalk’ is foes thick 
and ftrong, it always leans, and often. lies. upon. .the ground entirely. The Leaves are 
thick and flethy, of a blackifh ereen on the upper fide, and white on the under; but on 
both covered thick with a long curly, heavy, cottony matter, {cattered wildly, and as it 
were, irregularly over them. The two fides of the Leaf are a fine contraft to one ano- 
ther ; and they are ufually feen more or lefs in every Leaf together, for the fides toward 
| the bafe are naturally turned in, and drawn up ; and moft in the youngeft. . 
Tue Stalk is tough and {pungy, and is Peck thicker than the Leaves with this white 
-frizzled matter: we know the fingular harfhnefs there is upon the Stalks and Leaves of 
the Scabious of our corn fields: but this is foft and woolly, it gives way to preffure, 
and has a wonderful yielding to the touch, but rifes again prefently to ‘its ufual form. 
_ The Branches are few ; the filmy Leaves upon them are white entirely. The Flowers 
are very large and green, but with a flight tinge of yellowith. Their Cups have the 
fame woolly whitenefs with the Leaves ; and, this gives. a : pleating contraft to. the colour 
of the F lowers. ‘hee blow in Auguft. 
It does. not feem that. any of he's writers on Botany, have Loa this Plant, except 
Burman ; “and with him it appears in a degree of. eminence and fingularity, beyond what 
I have feen: the Flowers on his Plant were proliferous ; on mine they are fimple ; but 
’tis a luxuriance to which the Scabioufes are not abfolutely ftrangers, as we fhall fee in 
the fucceeding {pecies, even in their wild ftate : | and culture gives: this coneision fome- 
times in a hich degree, even to the Mufk Scabious. : . 
5M 18 PROLIF ER O-U'S 
