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S C A B I OS A fuccifa.
D e v il's -b it Scabious.
Ll
TETRANDRIA Monogynia.
G en. C har. General calyx of many leaves ; partial
double, fuperior. Receptacle chaffy or naked.
Spec. C har. Corollas four-cleft, regular. Stem-
leaves toothed. Heads of flowers nearly globular.
_
Syn . Scabiofa fuccifa. Linn. Sp. Pi. 14.2. Sm. r l .
Brit. 170. Hudf. 62. With. 183. Hull. 33*
Relb. 59. Sibth. 5 5 . Abbot. 29. Curt. Land,
fajc. 3. t. 10.
S. radice fuccisa, flore globofo. Rail Sjn. 191.
T h e fpecies of Scabious reprefented in the annexed plate
occurs very frequently and abundantly in graffy paftures that
are fomewhat moift, both on low commons and even on hilly
fpots, flowering from Auguft to Oftober inclufive.
Root perennial, oblong, abruptly bitten off at the lower end.
Stem ereft, round, leafy, bearing for the moft part 3 or more
flowers. Leaves dark-green, rather coriaceous, harfh and hairy;
the radical ones ovate, bluntifh and entire ; a pair or two on
the ftern often remotely toothed; the uppermoft fmaller and
entire. Flowers dark purplifh blue (frequently milk-white),
in roundifh heads, handing on long terminal flower-ftalks, the
central one being the moft confiderable. The hairs on thefe
ftalks, even below the floral leaves, point upwards, while all
thofe on the main ftern are reflexed downwards. Calyx
hairy. Florets nearly equally four-cleft. Seeds crowned with
briflles.
The origin of the name Devil’s-bit is curious ; for the old
writers tell us, the fuperftitious vulgar fuppofed the root had
been bitten off by the devil, for envy of the benefit its medicinal
virtues might render to mankind. Hence alone it feems
thofe virtues were prefumed; and in proportion as the devil and
his operations are little thought of, they have fallen into
oblivion in our unbelieving days.