CENTAURY 195 



Sea Milkwort is about 3 in. high. The flowers are in bloom in May 

 and June. The plant is perennial, and can be propagated from seed. 



A small quantity of honey is secreted at the base of the calyx. 

 The flowers, which lack a corolla, are small and inconspicuous, and 

 the plant being maritime is little visited by insects. The stamens are 

 shorter than the stigma, and the style is threadlike, the stigma blunt, 

 and when mature the anthers are not quite projecting. Self-pollination 

 is thus rendered easy. The capsule is 5-valved and splits open when 

 ripe, and the seeds, which are few, are dispersed by the shaking of the 

 flowering stems by the wind. 



Sea Milkwort is a salt-lover, and requires a saline soil. It is like- 

 wise a sand-loving plant, and addicted to sand. 



The leaves are attacked by a fungus, sEcidium Glands. 



G/a?t.r, Tournefort, is from the colour of the leaves, Greek glaucos, 

 bluish-green, and the second Latin name indicates its maritime habit. 



Milkwort, Black Saltwort, Sea Trifoly are the names popular usage 

 has conferred upon this plant. In reference to the name Milkwort, 

 Lyte says: "This taken with meate, or milke, or potage, ingendreth 

 planty of milke: therefore it is goode to be used of nurses that lacke 

 milke. The same virtue hath Polygala taken with his leaves and 

 flowers." 



It is a pretty little flower, and quite suited for garden culture in 

 pots or sandy soil in the open. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



204. Glaitx niarithna, L. Stem sub-prostrate, fleshy, leaves 

 glaucous, glabrous, ovate, opposite, flowers pink, in the axils, sessile, 

 apetalous, calyx coloured, blunt. 



Centaury (Centaurium umbellatum, Gilib.) 



This maritime and inland plant is found in the North Temperate 

 Zone in Europe, South of Scotland, N. Africa, and has been intro- 

 duced in North America. It is unknown in any early deposits. In 

 Great Britain it occurs on all the coasts, except Kincardine, N. Aber- 

 deen, Banff, W. Sutherland, Caithness, Orkneys, and is rare in the 

 Shetlands. 



Centaury is essentially a maritime species, growing on practically 

 all the coasts of counties in Great Britain where the shore is sandy. 

 But it also occurs inland, and there grows on dry pastures and in sandy 

 fields, often in quarries or pits where exposed rocks have produced a 

 suitable sandv soil. 



