132 



ter in dry weather; and in the second summer, when their leaves 

 decay, planting them out to flower, either in beds, or other me- 

 thods. 



They are of a hardy nature, and produce a fine effect, by their 

 curious growth, as well as flowers, in the autumn and winter 

 seasons. 



3. CATANANCHE C^RULEA. 



BLUE CATANANCHE. 



... 1 



This genus contains a plant of the herbaceous perennial flowery 

 kind. Candia Lion's-foot. 



It belongs to the class and order Syngenesia Folygania Mqualis, 

 and ranks in the natural order of Composite. 



The characters are : that the calyx is common imbricate, turbi- 

 nate; leaflets very many, loosely incumbent, acute, scariose; the 

 squamule ovate-acuminate, concave, lax, glossy and permanent: 

 the corolla is compound, generally imbricate, uniform; corollets her- 

 maphrodite, very many; the exterior ones longer. 



Proper monopetalous, ligulatc, linear, truncate, five-toothed : 

 the stamina consist of five capillary filaments, very short: the anthers 

 are cylindric, and tubular: the pistillum is an oblong germ: the style 

 filiform, length of the stamens: the stigma bifid and reflex: there is 

 no pericarpium: the calyx unchanged: the seeds solitary, turbinate- 

 ovate: down from a five-awned calycle: the receptacle is chafiy. 



The species chiefly cultivated is C. ccemlea. 



It is perennial, sending out many long, narrow, hairy leaves, 

 which are jagged on their edges. Between the leaves the flower- 

 stalks come out, which are in number proportioned to the size of the 

 plant; as from an old thriving root there are frequently eight or ten, 

 and young plants seldom send out more than two or three. These stalks 

 rise near two feet high, dividing into many small branches upward^ 



