Serratula
(from serrula, a little saw; alluding to the serrated foliage). Saw-wort. ORD. Compositae. A genus comprising about thirty species of hardy, perennial herbs, natives of Europe, North Africa, and Asia. Flower-heads purplish, violet, or rarely white, solitary or corymbose; involucral bracts many, imbricated, the outer ones shorter, the inner ones more or less scarious at the tips; receptacle densely bristly; florets regular, five-lobed; pappus hairs many-seriate, coloured. Leaves alternate, toothed or lyrate-pinnatifid. The genus is represented in Britain by S. tinctoria, the herbage of which yields a yellow dye. None of the species are very ornamental, the only one calling for description being S. quinquefolia. This thrives in any common soil, and may be increased by seeds, or by divisions. Several species erroneously included here by garden authorities are now placed under Jurinea, Liatris, &c.
S. quinquefolia (five-leaved). fl.-heads intense purple; involucral scales ovate, shortly mucronate, appressed, the inner ones elongated and scarious. July. l. slightly glabrous, impari-pinnatipartite; lobes sub-bigugate, confluent, ovate-lanceolate, toothed, the terminal one large. h. 3ft. Caucasus, 1804. (B. M. 1871.)