Tab. 6392. 



CENTAUEEA Fexzlii. 



Native of Armenia. 



Nat. Ord. Composite.— Tribe Cynaeoide.e. 

 Genus Centaurea, Linn. {Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. -477) 



Centaobea (Acrocentron), FenzlUj erecta, rnbusta.. grisea, subarachnoids, caule 

 robusto sulcato folioso, foliis amplis asperulis inferioribus petiolatis ovato- v. 

 oblongo-cordatis apice rotundatis, superioribus sessilibus v. breviter decurren- 

 tibus, omnibus integerrimis v. obsolete sinuatis, coata valida, nervia numerosis 

 liorizontaliter divaricatis, nervulis reticulatis, pedunculis elongatis validis 

 simplicibus v. bifurcatis, ramis nudis sulcatia monocaphalis, capitulis sequipolli- 

 caribus, involucri depresso-globosi bracteis lamina brevi quadrata in ap- 

 pendices adpressos multo latiores serai-orbiculatos inermes crebemme cihatos 

 desinentes, floribus flavifl, aebeniis brevibus nudis, pappi purpurei setis longion- 

 bus achenio duplo longioribus. 



C. Fenzlii, Beichardt, Verli. Zool. Bot. Ges. Vindob., 1863, ex. Bom. Fl. Orient., 

 vol. iii., 672. Oartiere in Rev. Horde., 1808, p. 866. Fig. 39. 



This is certainly the noblest Centaury hitherto introduced 

 into cultivation, and is indeed a very stately plant ; with 

 bold spreading foliage, a strict erect stem, and numerous very 

 long erect or ascending one- to two-headed axillary pe- 

 duncles, that together form a sort of nude umbel of globose 

 heads capped with an almost golden ray ol florets. Though 

 a very little known, plant, it has, according to Boissier s 

 < Flora Orientalis,' been in cultivation for a good many years. 

 For it is known only from plants raised from seed sent to 

 Vienna by the late indefatigable Oriental botanical traveller 

 Kotschy, who discovered it in Southern Armenia, at the toot 

 of the Bindoeldagh, near Gumgum, a town > north-east of 

 Lake Van, and which in our maps is placed m Kurdistan, 

 towards the southern border of Armenia. It belongs to a 

 section of the genus containing several species ot gigantic 

 stature, and one of which, C. Kurdica, attains seven feet in 

 height. Carriere, who described it very imperfectly in 

 1868 from garden specimens, says it was then new < and pro- 

 bably from Asia, giving it the name of C. Fenzln without 



NOVEMBEK 1ST, 



