Here we have Field Scabious, or Knautia Arvensis, a perennial flowering plant that is part of the honeysuckle family. And it is a valuable source for providing succour to many different insects, plus, even, the Marsh Fritillary butterfly and the Bee-hawk moth.
It likes to grow amidst the grass, loves chalklands, and objects to clay and heavy soil And you will see its bright heads pop up between May and August, in which month it starts to go to seed.
As for the name scabious, that was given it in the fourteenth century, when it was discovered that it could help heal sores caused by the bubonic plague. In fact it is a derivative of the Latin word, "scabere", which means to scratch. And as far as the "Knautia", well that comes later, from the seventeenth century German botanist, Christian Knaut.
For all that, the plant is very little known, and much under appreciated.
This is actually a set which seems to consistently go beneath the collector`s radar too, and yet it, like the flower it represents, is just as delightful, and charming. And on the reverse there is a description of the wild flower, along with its habitat, the month you are most likely to see it, and sometimes, even its uses.
Below this there are instructions, namely "After collecting this series of 25 cigarette cards and painting in water colours the outlined copy of each picture, send them together with your name and address to :- "Wild Flowers", Messrs. Carreras, Ltd., Arcadia Works, City Road, LONDON E.C.1. On receipt of which you will be credited with 50 coupons available towards any one of the 200 beautiful gifts in our Gift Booklet, and your cards returned".
I have to say that Carreras seem to have been aiming at the higher class end of their smokers here, for how many readers of this page could be able to reach for their watercolours and paint this outline in? Not many, I am sure. I do have watercolours, somewhere, though I imagine if I found them they would probably be unusable due to their great age.
There is another thought, too, for as I said before, this set is quite scarce, and yet of all the ones I have seen I do not remember seeing any which were coloured in. So perhaps the collectors consigned their returned cards to the bin or to the fireplace when they came back, and just concentrated on spending their coupons? Maybe this is why they are so scarce....
They are described in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, without much excitement, as :
- WILD FLOWER ART SERIES. Sm. Nd. (25). ... C18-71
And this is exactly the same text in our updated version, just with a new card code :
- WILD FLOWER ART SERIES. Sm. Nd. (25). ... C151-395