160 composite: 



Beautiful as the colour is, it cannot, however, be praised, at least when 

 prepared as we have described, for its permanence. Miniature painters are 

 said to use it; and in the first edition of "English Botany," a separate 

 blossom, figured at the bottom of the plate, was painted with the juice of 

 this Corn-flower, and now remains an evidence of the fugitive nature of the 

 tint thus procured ; yet a good ink is said to be made of the petals. The 

 blue tint of the Corn-flower itself, when on its native field, is so rich, ths^aio 

 artificial colour can well represent it. It is sometimes, both in its wild OTid 

 cultivated state, of a dark purple hue. Several of the species besides this 

 are planted in the flower-garden. 



The author has often observed the Bluebottle to be a favourite both of 

 the bee and butterfly ; and Professor Rennie remarked this when commenting 

 on the power of smell in insects. " We have observed that l^utterflies of all 

 species, though far from being voracious feeders, will often dart down from 

 a considerable height upon a flower beneath their track. This struck us 

 more particularly in a narrow garden at Havre-de-Grace, inclosed with stone 

 walls fifteen feet high ; for no butterfly, in passing over it, omitted to descend 

 for the purpose of visiting the blossoms of an Alpine Bluebottle (C. montana), 

 whose smell, however, to our organs was far from being powerful enough to 

 be perceived at the distance of one foot, much less at fifteen or twenty feet, 

 as it must have been by the butterflies, for we often saw the Painted Lady 

 {Cynthia cardui) alight there." 



5. Jersey Knapweed (6*. j:>ffirw'a«/afo).— Involucre egg-shaped, its bracts 

 spiny-toothed or fringed with soft spines ; stem slender, sharply angled, 

 erect, branched, woolly ; branches forming a panicle. Lower leaves divided 

 into pinnate lobes, which are again cut into narrow segments ; upper leaves 

 slender, undivided. The heads are nearly an inch long, their purple florets 

 expanding in July. The smooth, silvery -white fruits have a pappus of short, 

 flat bristles. This plant, which is very variable in stature, is a biennial, 

 found only in Jersey. 



6. Jersey Star Thistle (C isndrdi). — Scales of the involucre with 

 palmate, nearly equal spines; heads of flowers terminal, solitary; pappus 

 of the fruit in several rows; leaves rough, lower ones somewhat lyrate, 

 deeply cut, with ears clasping the stem ; upper ones long and slender, 

 coarsely toothed, and narrowed at the base ; root perennial. This plant, 

 which bears small purple flowers in July and August, is found, though rarely, 

 in pastures of Jersey and Guernsey. It does not occur in England, Scotland, 

 or Ii-eland. It is also known as C. aspera. 



7. Common Star Thistle (6'. caldtrapa). — Scales of the involucre 

 smooth, ending in a long, firm, broad-channelled spine; stem branched, 

 spreading ; leaves unequally pinnatifid, toothed, and spiny ; stem-leaves 

 slender and undivided ; root biennial. This plant is very local, but it is not 

 unfrequent on many gravelly, sandy, or chalky soils in the south of England. 

 The author has often found it in Kent, as on chalky banks on Chatham Hill, 

 and also on the clifts and shingle of Dover. It is very unlike any other of 

 our wild flowers in the spreading long thorns of its flower-head, which are at 

 first green, but which become afterwards very hard and woody, and as 

 strong and sharp as the thorns on a May-bush, and large enough to attract 



