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SCABIOSA columbaria.
Sma ll Scabious.
TETRAtfDRIA Monogynia.
G en. Ch a r . General Calyx of many leaves; partial
double, superior. Receptacle chaffy or naked.
Spec. Ch a r . Corollas five-cleft, irregular. Radical
leaves ovate or lyrate, crenate; the rest pmnatifid,
with linear segments.
Syn. Scabiosa columbaria. Linn. Sp. PL 143. Sm. FL
B r it.111. Huds.62. With. 184. Hull.33. Relh.53.
Sibth.55. Abbot. 30. FI. Dan. t. 314.
S. minor vulgaris. Rail Syn. 191.
^ECULIAR to chalk, limestone or gravelly countries, but
lere not uncommon, flowering from June to August. It
rows about the walls of Norwich, and we have receded it
com Yorkshire and Devonshire.
Root perennial, woody, tufted. Plant smaller and mon*
lender than the S. arvensis. Stem 12 or 18 inches high, erect,
ound, leafy, hairy, a little branched in the upper part. Leaves
iairy; the lowermost ovate or lyrate, crenate and cut, onlong-
sh footstalks; the rest sessile, simply or doubly pmnatifid,
heir segments linear, sharp and entire. Flowers terminal on
ong naked stalks, light purple. The margmal floret? particu-
arly large and radiant, and all the florets five-cleft,, by which
t is clearly distinguished from our other species. The stamina
vowever, as far as we have been able to discover, are never
nore than four, though five are represented in the Flora Da-
lica. The outer partial calyx becomes a small ribbed crenate
nembranous ruffle; the inner consists of 5 brown bristles, as
ong as the corolla.