THE TEAZLE FAMILY 
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shorter bracts ; the stem shorter, 2-4 feet high, bristly rather than spiny ; and the leaves usually 
with 2 very small lobes at the base. 
Not common. In damp places, ditches, and shady waste ground. August — September. Biennial. 
SCABIOUS. (SCABIOSA, LINN.) — Flowers small, stalkless, lilac, purple, white, red, or yellow, 
clustered together in round or flattened heads, the outer flowers often being larger and irregular, 
each head of flowers surrounded with 1 or 2 rows of small, leafy bracts (an involucre). Calyx-tube 
combined with the seedcase (ovary), with a cup-shaped border, which has 4, 5, or more teeth or 
bristles ; petals 4 or 5, united into a funnel-shaped tube, and dividing into 4 or 5, often unequal 
lobes ; stamens 4 ; carpel 1. Fruit small and dry, crowned with the cup-shaped calyx-border which 
has 4, 5, or more teeth or bristles, 1 -celled, containing 1 seed. Herbs without prickles and with 
opposite leaves. 
Devil’s-bit Scabious. (Scabiosa Succisa, Linn.)— As just described. The flowers 
purplish-blue or white, with the 4 corolla lobes equal, clustered in round heads on long stalks ; 
the stems 1-2 feet high, slender, slightly branched and hairy; the leaves of the root stalked, oblong, 
not toothed ; those of the stem without stalks, few, narrower, and toothed. The root short and 
abrupt, as if it had been bitten off— hence the name. [ Plate 63. 
Very common on heaths, commons, and mountain-sides. July — October. Perennial. 
Small Scabious. (Scabiosa Columbaria, Linn.)— Flowers lilac, the corollas 5-lobed 
and unequal, stalkless, clustered in flattish heads on long stalks, the outer flowers larger and the 
corolla lobes very unequal. [As just described in the genus Scabiosa.] Stems r-2 feet high, slender, 
branched, and slightly hairy ; the leaves deeply lobed towards the midrib into narrow segments which 
are sometimes again lobed (pinnatifid or bi-pinnatifid). 
Common on chalky soils. Dry banks and pastures. July — September. Perennial. 
Field Scabious. (Scabiosa arvensis, Linn.)— A very similar species. The flowers lilac, 
stalkless, the corollas 4-lobed and unequal, clustered in large, flattish heads on long stalks, the outer 
flowers larger and with very unequal corolla lobes ; the stems 1-3 feet high, simple or branched, 
and hairy, and the leaves variable, usually with the root leaves stalked, lance-shaped and toothed, 
the lower stem leaves without stalks, and lobed, and the upper ones entire. [ Plate 63. 
Common on chalky soil. Dry banks and sides of fields. July — September. Perennial. 
Seaside Scabious. (Scabiosa maritima, Linn.) — A very similar species to the Field 
Scabious, with a 5-lobed corolla, and all its leaves deeply lobed to the midrib. 
Very rare. Found at St. Ouen’s Bay, Jersey. July — September. Perennial. 
