BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
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GENUS III. 
THE FIELD-SCABIOUS. (Knautia, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. —Involucellum compressed, with four little excavations, closely surrounding the fruit, placed on a short stalk. 
Calyx with a somewhat cup-shaped limb. ( Lindley .) 
Description, &c. —There is only one British species in this genus, and it is a very handsome plant, common 
in corn-fields, which is usually called the Field Scabious. The flowers are naturally of two shades of purple, 
but they have the peculiarity of turning to a bright green when exposed to the smoke of tobacco. The plant is 
a perennial, and it produces its flowers in July. The genus is named in honour of Dr. Knaut, a German 
botanist, who resided at Halle, and died in 1694. 
CHAPTER XLVIII. 
THE COMPOSITE FAMILY. (Composite, Juss.) 
Character of the Order. —Calyx superior, closely adhering to 
the ovarium, and undistinguishable from it; its limb either wanting, 
or membranous, divided into bristles, paleas, hairs or feathers, and called 
pappus. Corolla monopetalous, superior, usually deciduous, either 
ligulate or funnel-shaped ; in the latter case, four or five-toothed, with 
a valvate aestivation. Stamens equal in number to the teeth of the 
corolla, and alternate with them ; the antheis cohering into a cylinder. 
Ovarium inferior, one-celled, with a single erect ovulum; style 
simple ; stigmas two, either distinct or united. Fruit a small, indekis- 
cent, dry pericarpium, crowned with the limb of the calyx. Seed 
solitary, erect; embryo with a taper, inferior radicle; albumen none. 
Herbaceous plants or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, without 
stipulae; usually simple. Flowers (called florets) collected in dense 
heads upon a common receptacle, surrounded by an involucrum. 
Bracteee either present or absent; when present, stationed at the base 
of the florets, and called paleae of the receptacle. (Lindley.) 
Description, &c.— This is one of the most extensive orders of British plants ; but the numerous genera 
of which it is composed may be all divided into three tribes, the distinctions between which are very simple and 
easily remembered. In all the Composite, what is popularly called a flower is composed of a great number of 
small florets, each of which is perfectly distinct in itself. In most of the genera these florets are divided into 
two kinds : the central ones, which are yellow in the Daisy, being called the disk, and the outer ones, which are 
white in the Daisy, forming the ray. The disk florets are generally tubular ; while those of the ray are what 
botanists call ligulate, that is, tubular towards the base, but opening so widely at the mouth as to appear flat. 
The flowers thus formed constitute the first tribe of the Composite, and this tribe contains twenty-seven genera, 
all of which bear more or less resemblance to the Daisy. The second tribe takes for its type the Artichoke, and 
its florets are all tubular; while the third tribe, which takes the Wild Succory for its type, has its florets all 
ligulate. There are only nine genera in the second tribe, and sixteen in the third ; so that the two together do 
not contain so many genera as the first. All the plants belonging to the order Composite are included in the 
Linnaean class Syngenesia ; but the genera were divided by Linnaeus into five different orders. 
I.—THE CORYMB-FLOWERED TRIBE. 
Ray ligulate. Involucre hemispherical or cylindrical. 
