CORN-FLOWER OR BLUEBOTTLE 



137 



There are few florets in the disk or centre, and the anther-cylinders 

 project at distant points. On an insect touching them the anther- 

 stalks contract, and the cylinder is depressed. A mass of pollen quickly 

 emerges from the upper opening of the cylinder, and the style is 

 projected 3-4 mm. beyond it. The Honey Bee, Bombns silvarum, 

 Megackile, Psammophila, Diptera, limpis livida, Eristalis arbustorum, 

 Rhingia rostrata, and the Silver Y Moth (Plusia gamma) visit it. 



The pappus, which is 

 shorter than the fruits, assists 

 in dispersing the smooth 

 achenes by the wind. 



Corn-flower is a sand 

 plant growing in sand soil, 

 or sandy, gravelly beds, often 

 on the chalk, where there is 

 gravel and sand at the top. 



The leaves are liable to 

 attack by a clustercup fungus, 

 Puce in ia suaveolens. 



A moth, Depressaria 

 I it lire /la, and a fly, Try pet a 

 colon, are found on it. 



Centaurea, Pliny, is from 

 Centaur, in heathen my- 

 thology half-man, half-horse. 

 Centaury helped to cure 

 Chiron when one of Her- 

 cules's arrows entered his 

 foot. The name was also 

 Chironion. Chiron was 

 versed in the knowledge of herbs. 

 cyanos, blue. 



Bluebottle is called Bachelor's Buttons, Witch Bells, Blaver, Blave- 

 role, Blawort, Blue Blawort, Blewball, Blewblow, Blue-blaw, Blue-caps, 

 Blue-bottle, Blue-bonnets, Blue Poppy, Break-your-Spectacles, Brushes, 

 Corn Centaury, Corn-binks, Corn-bottle, Corn-flower, Cuckoo-hood, 

 Hawclod, Hurt-sickle, Knobweecl, Knotweed, Loggerheads, Thumble, 

 \Yitches' Thimble. 



" Gay lark-heels soon, and Bottles will o'er run 

 The fields with numerous crops tho' never sown." 



As to the name Hurt-sickle, Turner says: "Some herbaries call it 



CORN-FLOWKRS (Ccntanrca Cyciiuis, L.) 



Cyanus, Pliny, is from the Greek 



