70 CENTAUREA AMERICANA. AMERICAN CENTAUREA. 



which name was adopted by Linnaeus as CJiironia Ccntatireiim, 

 and is beHeved to be the Ccutauria of Dioscorides, and also the 

 plant which should be identified with Chiron's history. The 

 genus which we now call Ccntmirca, and to which our present 

 species belongs, contains the plant which seems to have been 

 referred to under this name by Theophrastus, a Grecian author 

 who died 288 years before Christ, by Lucretius, and by Virgil ; 

 and which is now Centaitrea Ccntaiirmm, but how it is connected 

 with "Chiron, the centaur," is not clear. The earlier of extant 

 English authors on Botany seem unable to unravel the puzzle, so 

 for distinction they called the gentians the " lesser centaury," and 

 those which we now refer to the genus the " greater centaury." 

 Instead of being able to heal a wound, such as that from the 

 poisoned arrow from which Chiron suffered, these plants have no 

 medical value whatever. 



The genus contains numerous representatives in the old 

 world, but in the new has but a single indigenous species, Ccn- 

 tau7'ea Americana, the one we now describe ; and this is confined 

 in the United States to the dry regions of Texas, Arkansas, and 

 the Indian Territory, where it has a singularly beautiful appear- 

 ance, being often the only showy plant on the dry sterile soil, for 

 the pretty ones are generally to be found only along the water 

 courses, or where in low places the ground may be moist. Still 

 it has no objection to more favorable locations under other cir- 

 cumstances, as its luxurious growth and fine blossoms when 

 under garden culture show. At least this dry location is the 

 experience of the writer of this, who collected it in northern 

 Texas. In the " Plantae Lindheimerianee," where it is marked 

 as being found near Houston, in Texas, it is noted as growing in 

 "moist, fertile prairies." Rothrock, in the botany of the Wheeler 

 Expedition, notes its collection in Arizona, but does not give the 

 nature of its location. It varies somewhat, and the particular 

 form we have illustrated, first collected by Mr. Elihu Hall in 

 Texas, is known as the " Variety Hallii." 



Our plant is of particular interest on account of its botanical 



\ 



