90 FAMILIAR FLOWP^RS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 



ers with an odor like that of buckwheat ; it comes 

 to us from Europe ; a variety common in garden 

 borders has small, ornamental, pale-green leaves 

 white-edged. Aljssum is also a member of the Mus- 

 tard family, and is closely allied to candytuft and 

 shepherd's-purse. It blooms all summer. 



Cornflower or T^^^ bluest of all blue flowers, the 

 Bachelor's Button, cornflower or bachelor's button, vies 

 Centaurea Oyanus. ^^j^^^ ^^^^ gQ,,tve,n which Bryant seems 

 to consider a most perfect blue ; but a flower of the 

 time blue does not exist ; it is only suggested by the 

 forget-me-not. There is too much purple in the corn- 

 flower for us to indulge in praises of its blue. For 

 all that, its color is still charming, and in Germany 

 (the flower originally came to us from that country), 

 where it grows wild in the wheat fields, the harmony 

 of its blue with the straw-yellow is aesthetically per- 

 fect. But the cornflower shows us other colors than 

 blue ; there are light and deep crimson-pink, purple 

 and violet, l)oth these colors stri])ed witli white, lilac, 

 and white with pink or with blue center. Its foliage is 

 a soft, silvery, whitish green, and its bloom is continu- 

 ous and prolific through the early summer ; it blooms 

 quite as well if planted later in the season, and is 

 an annual highly prized in old-fashioned gardens. A 

 comparison of the Centaureas with ironweed and 

 blazing-star, which are distant relatives, is interesting, 



