34 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



as this plant, or one of its allies, was iised as a cure for wounds and various maladies, 

 it was probably held to cure these. Why it should also have had the old name of 

 " Cowede " is not very obvious. 



SPECIES IV.— CENT AURE A CYANUS. Linn. 

 Plate DCCIX. 



Reich, Ic. El. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XV. Tab. DCCLXVIII. Fig. 1. 

 Billot, M. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2656. 



Annual or biennial. Stem erect, branched, not winged, the 

 branches slender, elongated. Lower leaves pinnatipartite, with 

 strapshaped or linear distant segments and a larger terminal one, 

 more rarely entire and oblanceolate ; upper leaves strapshaped or 

 linear-strapshaped, entire. Anthodes on naked peduncles. Peri- 

 cline slightly arachnoid-hairy, ovate-ovoid ; appendages of the phyl- 

 laries narrow, the margins cut into unequal narrowly-triangular 

 teeth ; those of the outer phyllaries often silvery-white, of the 

 middle ones usually brownish-black or fawn-coloured, with the 

 teeth sometimes edged with white. Elorets blue, the radiant ones 

 with the limb divided about half-way down into triangular-strap- 

 shaped teeth. 



In cultivated fields and by roadsides. Rather common, and 

 generally distributed. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Biennial or annual. Summer 



and Autumn. 



Stem 1 to 3 feet high, slender, furrowed, somewhat corym- 

 bosely branched, with the branches ascending. Pericline i to ^ inch 

 across, longer than broad, with much fewer phyllaries than in the 

 preceding species ; inner ones much longer than the others. 

 Plorets of the ray brilliant blue ; those of the disk pale purplish- 

 rose with the limb blue. Anthers purple. Achenes silvery-grey, 

 slightly pubescent, with a short reddish- white pappus. Plant green, 

 with the stem, peduncles, and leaves more or less white with 

 arachnoid pubescence. 



Blue-hottle, or Corn-floioer. 



French, Centauree Bleuet. German, Kornhlume. 



The common name of this species of Centaurea is given to it from the bottle shape 

 of the involucre and its brilliant blue flower. The Corn-cockle must not be confounded 

 with this Corn-flower. Hardly any flower is of so beautiful a blue as this, and in the 

 country districts it is often called blue-cup and blue-bonnet ; but the toughness of its 

 stems gained for it the far less complimentaiy name of hurt-sickle. 



Our own poets often allude to this peculiarity. 



