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Should any reader who has not previously made a study of botany, but who has followed us thus far, be asked to name the order to which the Scabious belongs, he would almost certainly say the Composit&aelig;. He would be wrong, but almost right. Scabious is certainly a Composite flower, though not one of the Composit&aelig;; it is, instead, included in the order Dipsace&aelig;. We have already made the acquaintance of so many composite flowers that our readers may be presumed to be fairly familiar with their general structure. It will be remembered, then, that the anthers of Composites are all joined together to form a tube: in Dipsace&aelig; they are free. Again, the calyx in Composit&aelig; is reduced to a series of hairs (pappus), whilst in Dipsace&aelig; there is a distinct tubular calyx invested in a separate involucel (or little involucre) of tiny bracts, quite independent of the common involucre that invests the whole head of florets.