CENTAURY. 227 



put it into clean shells for use. The outer florets 

 give a blue of a paler colour. 



The Cj/anus is a hardy annual plant that will 

 grow in almost any soil, but it succeeds best 

 when sown in the autumn, for those sown in the 

 spring seldom produce so many flowers, and it is 

 a plant that will not bear transplanting. The 

 only care required is to keep the plants free from 

 weeds, and to thin them to a proper distance 

 from each other, as they branch to a considerable 

 distance. 



SWEET SULTAN or PURPLE SWEET 

 CENTAURY. Cmtaurea Moschata. 



This honey-scented species of Cmtaurea is indi- 

 genous to the soil of Persia, and was first intro- 

 duced to this country during the reign of Charles 

 the First. Parkinson thus speaks of it in 1629: 

 *' As a kinde of these Corne-fiowers, I must 

 needs adjoyn another stranger, of much beauty, 

 and but lately obtained from Constantinople, 

 where, because (as it is said) the great Turk, as 

 w^e call him, saw it abroad, liked it, and w^ore it 



Q 2 



