s'
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S C A B I O S A arvenfis.
F ie ld Scabious.
T E T B . A N D B . l A Monogynia.
G en. Char. General calyx of many leaves ; partial
double, fuperior. Receptacle chaffy or naked.
Spec. C har. Corollas 4-cleft, radiating. Leaves pin-
natifid, cut. Stem briftly.
Syn . Scabiofa arvenlis. Linn. Sp. PI. 143. Sm. FI.
Brit. 170. Hud/. 62. With. 183. Hull. 33. Relh.
60. Sibth. 55. Curt. Lond.fafc. 4. t. 13. Dick/.
H. Sicc. fafc. 12. 6.
S. major communior, folio laciniato. Rail Syn. 191.
C o m m o n in paftures, but more efpecially in corn-fields,
where it flowers in July, mixed with the Cockle and the Great
Ox-eye, contributing more to the ornament of the country
than to the profit or honour of the farmer.
Root perennial, long, fpindle-fhaped, moftly branched. Stem
about a yard high, branched, rough with briftles which rather
point downward. Leaves for the moft part hairy; the radical
ones numerous, lanceolate, more or lefs ferrated, as are alfo the
pinnatifid (and frequently cut) upper leaves. Branches fpread-
ing, each terminated by a folitary flower, compofed of very numerous
tubular four-cleft pale-purple florets, of which the
outermofl: are larger, labiate, and give the whole a radiated figure.
Stamina capillary, with flefh-coloured antherse, abortive in the
outermofl; florets. Seed one to each floret, quadrangular,
crowned by the permanent partial calyx.
Thefe flowers, held over the fmoke of a pipe of tobacco, in a
few minutes become of a moft beautiful green, from the alkaline
nature of the fmoke, to which their delicate purple is peculiarly
fenfible.