go Tur VEGETABLE (SYSTEM. 
22. PINNATIFID STARRY SCABIOUS. 
Plate 37. _ 
Character of the Species, | | 7 Scabiofa Stellata, 
T he Leaves are re deeply pinata | and the Segments cut again. 
Plate 37. a b. 
TuIs is an Annual, native of Spain, a very beautiful Plant, of two feet and a half 
in heighth, flowering in Auguft. The Stalk is firm, thick jointed, of a pale green, 
upright, and not very much branched: the Shoots are afcendant .as in our. Devilfbit 
- Scabious, fo that there is formed a very fine head to..the Plant, with their numerous 
and large Flowers. The Leaves are of a pale, and. fomewhat greyith green. The 
__ Flowers are of a fine pale blueith crimfon’; and the heads of Seeds, which have indeed 
little lefs beauty than the Flowers themfelves, are of a pale but fhining brown, Thefe 
are very lafting, but the Flowers foon fade. 
ee Flowers of as Plant are fomebiniés redder than they are here deferibed; and in 
that cafe, the general head is rounder and lefs {pread. at the edge. A Plant of this kind 
I received two years ago from Portugal, gathered at the edge of a vineyard, where it 
{tood overfhaded : the Footftalks of the Flowers were alfo longer than I had feen them; 
and the Plant, from all thefe circumftances, had an afpect fo different from what is 
ufual, that one lefs accuftomed to ftri& obfervation, might eafily have fuppofed it a 
diftin&t Species, and have boafted to the world a new Plant. Perhaps many of the Sca- 
bious’s defcribed by lefs accurate authors, and which, from the uncertain defcriptions, 
one knows not whither to refer, were of this kind: the differences in the fame Species 
are fo great, in refpet to the fize of the head, and length of the Footftalk, that they 
give often a very different face to the particular Plants; but this appearance of dif- 
tinction, when examined, vanifhes into more or lefs, which affords no real difference, 
and the Plants are always to be diftin@ly known, for their {pecific characters remain 
_ unaltered. I caution the young ftudent particularly in this matter, Let him eftablith 
i his mind a middle ftate; and the extreams will not perplex bina: I have endea- 
voured every where to give it in thefe figures; there are many of them whofe Heads and 
‘Footftalks I have new arawn 4 or eight times to — the al ftandard. | 
5 2. MULTIFID 
