122 FAMILY Alt WILD FLOWERS. 



its vigour, and if its health does not suffer then doubtless 

 it gains the two other points in the adage, and is both 

 " wealthy and wise/' for health is wealth, and its preserva- 

 tion is wisdom. It closes, too, in damp weather, and when- 

 ever the sky is overcast. Culpepper, in the fantastic blend- 

 ing of botanical science with astrological folly, so charac- 

 teristic of the writings of some of the old herbalists, asserts 

 that the plant is " under the dominion of the sun, as 

 appears in that the flowers open and shut as the sun either 

 sheweth or hideth his face." The " dominion " in this 

 case has some little show of reason, but in most instances 

 the assignments of the plants to various heavenly bodies 

 appear of the most arbitrary nature ; thus the little 

 celandine is a plant of Mars, the chickweed is under the 

 dominion of the moon, cinquefoil is an herb of Jupiter, 

 the columbine owes allegiance to Venus, and the cross-wort 

 is a plant of Saturn. 



"Work of an artistic nature is best done in a room having 

 a northern aspect, as the light is more equable ; but we soon 

 found that we need expect no co-operation from our little 

 centaury in favour of that idea, for piece after piece that 

 we brought home we found rapidly closing, and it was 

 only when we took our water-jar and its contents into a 

 room with a southern aspect, and stood them in the direct 

 sunlight, that the flowers could be induced to remain open. 



The root of the centaury is fibrous and woody, and from 

 this the stiff and upright stem ascends to a height of from 

 seven or eight inches to a foot. The stem is smooth to 

 the touch and angular in cross-section ; it branches con- 

 siderably at the summit, though the lower part is ordinarily 

 without any lateral developments of sufficient size and 

 importance to break the rigidity of its aspiring ascent. 



