C 333 ] 



Cerinthe Major. Great Honeywort. 

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C/rt/> a«i Order. 



Pentandria Monogynia. 



Generic Character. 



Corolla limbus tubulato ventricofus : fauce pervia. Semina 2, 

 bilocularia. 



Specific Character and Synonyms. 

 CERINTHE major foliis amplexicaulibus, corollis obtufiuf- 



culis patulis. Linn. SyJL Vegetab. ed. 14. 



Murr. p. 187. Ait. Kew. v. 1. p. 183. 

 CERINTHE glaber foliis oblongo-ovatis glabris amplexi- 



caulibus, corollis obtufiufculis patulis. Mill* 



DicJ. ed. 6. 4/0. 

 CERINTHE flore ex rubropurpurafcente. Baith. pin. p. 258. 

 CERINTHE major. Great Honiewoort. Ger. Herb. 



Ancient writers on plants, fuppofing that the flowers of this 

 genus produced abundantly the material of which bees form 

 their wax, gave it the name of Cerinthe, which rendered into 

 Englifh would be wax-flower or waxwort, not honeywort, by 

 which the genus has long been, and is now, generally called. 



Of this genus there are only two fpecies known, the major 

 and the minor, both happily diftinguifhed by the different form 

 of their flowers, a part from which it is not common to draw 

 fpecific differences, though in fome inftancesthey afford the belt. 



The major varies much, the leaves being fometimes fpotted, 

 very rough, and the flowers of a more yellow hue ; this is the 

 fort figured by Gerard in his Herbal, who mentions its 

 growing in his garden (1597). Miller confiders this as a 

 fpecies, but Linnjeus, Haller, Aiton, and others, regard 

 it as a variety ; our figure reprefents the Cerinthe glaber of 

 Miller. 



This is an annual, remarkable for the Angular colour of its 

 foliage ; its flowers, though not very brilliant, poffefs a con- 

 fiderable fhare of beauty ; both combined render it worthy 

 a place in our gardens, more efpecially as it is a plant of eafy 

 culture, coming up fpontaneoufly from felf-fown feeds, and 

 being a native of Switzerland, as well as the more fouthern 

 parts of Europe, feedling plants produced in the Autumn 

 rarely fuffer by our winters. It flowers in July, Auguft, and 

 September. 



