CXSTJ.U&Y. 123 



The lowest leaves are broader than the others, and form u 

 spreading- tuft at the base of the plant, while the smooth 

 and stalkless stem-leaves grow in pairs at somewhat dis- 

 tant intervals on the stalk. The stem-leaves are often 

 very upright in general direction, as may be seen in the 

 lowest pair in our illustration, and all have the three 

 principal veins or nerves very sharply indicated on their 

 upper surfaces. The flowers are borne in numerous clusters 

 on the freely-forking- stems, and form a rich -looking 

 terminal mass of colour. The calyx is composed of one 

 piece, but this is deeply cut into five pointed segments ; 

 these segments taper towards a point instead of spreading 

 outwards, as we find them doing in so many other plants. 

 The whole forms a long and slender tube. The corolla, 

 too, is tubular for some little distance, and then expands 

 into a broad star-like form, the five sharply-cut segments 

 in which it terminates standing- boldly out. Though the 

 flowers of the 'centaury are ordinarily a rich yet delicate 

 pink in colour, we may occasionally come across a specimen 

 where they are pure white. Curtis, in his " Flora Londi- 

 n en sis," speaks of this variation from the type as " not 

 uncommon," but we do not ourselves remember having 

 ever seen an example of it ; and Parkinson, in writing of 

 the plant, says that " it is found in our owne countrie in 

 many places, the ordinary sort almost everywhere in fields, 

 pastures, and woods ; yet that with the white flowers more 

 sparingly by much than the first." He is very careful, 

 too, to make us understand that this colour-variation is, so 

 to speak, an accident that concerns the flowers alone, and 

 holds out no justification whatever for considering it a 

 different plant at all, for, in speaking of it, he says with 

 quaint decision, " This small centory dift'ereth not from 



