C E N 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



C E N 



Root perennial ; stem a foot and a half high, smooth, leafy, 

 with simple branches ; flowers yellow, terminal, solitary. 

 Found at the foot of Mount Libanus, in shady watery places. 



2<). Centaurea Repens ; Creeping Cenl.aury. Calices sca- 

 riose ; leaves lanceolate, subpetioled, toothed ; peduncles 

 filiform, leafless. Stem angular, branched, even. Perennial; 

 and a native of the Levant. 



30. Centaurea Jacea ; Common Centaury or Knapweed. 

 Calices scariose, lacerate; leaves lanceolate ; radical leaves 

 sinuate-toothed : branches angular ; stems eight inches to 

 three feet high ; leaves scattered, acute, often a little cottony, 

 and whitish ; flowers purple and terminal. There are several 

 varieties not worth enumerating. Perennial; native of the 

 north of Europe, and the south of France. 



.31. Centaurea Amara ; Bitter Ceniaury. Calices scariose; 

 leaves lanceolate, quite entire ; stems decumbent. Stem 

 panicled. Native of Spain and Switzerland. 



32. Centaurea Alba; White-flowered Centaury. Calices 

 scariose, entire, mucronated ; leaves pinnate, toothed ; stem- 

 leaves linear, toothed at the base. Native of Spain and 

 Switzerland. 



33. Centaurea Splendens ; Shining Centaury. Calices 

 scariose, obtuse ; radical leaves bipinnatifid ; stem-leaves 

 pinnated ; teeth lanceolate. Stems three feet high, angular, 

 hard, smooth, branched, many-flowered ; flowers purple, 

 with a beautiful silvery calix, consisting of dry round scales, 

 ending in a harmless awn. Biennial; flowering in July : the 

 seeds ripen in September. Found in transalpine Switzer- 

 land, Spain, and Siberia. 



34. Centaurea Rhapontica ; Swiss Centaury. Calices sca- 

 riose ; leaves ovate-oblong, toothletted, entire, petioied, 

 tomentose beneath. Root thick, round, black, wrinkled, and 

 irregular ; it strikes deep into the ground, and when dry is 

 aromatic. This is a handsome plant ; flowers solitary, large; 

 floscules purple, very numerous, without any neuters. It 

 flowers in July, and is found in Switzerland, and about 

 Verona. The root of this plant, and of several of the species 

 allied to it, are bitter and astringent, and were formerly much 

 given in cases wherein Jesuit's bark is now administered ; 

 the plant also will dye yellow. Neither this nor the thirty- 

 seventh species, perfect their seeds in England ; they must 

 therefore be procured from their native countries ; they are 

 perennial, and hardy ; and when once obtained, ma}' be 

 increased by the root. 



35. Centaurea Babylonica; Baby Ionian Centaury. Calices 

 scariose ; leaves subtomentose, decurrent, undivided ; radi- 

 cal leaves lyrate; corolla yellow. Perennial. Native of 

 the Levant. 



3G. Centaurea Glastifolia ; Wood-leaved Centaury. Calices 

 scariose ; leaves undivided, quite entire, decurrent ; root 

 perennial, striking deep into the ground ; flowers yellow. 

 Native of the Levant and Siberia ; flowering from July till 

 August. 



37". Centaurea Conifera : Cone Centaury. Calices scariose ; 

 leaves tomentose, next the root lanceolate, on the stem pin- 

 natilid ; stem simple; root perennial, single, sending out in 

 the spring several entire leaves, and afterwards a single 

 stalk, more than a foot high; at the top comes a scaly head, 

 like a pine-cone, taper at the top, surrounding the florets, 

 which are of a bright purple colour, and appear in June. 

 Native of the south of Europe. 



**** Stoebae : With the Spines of the Calix palmated. 



38. Centaurea Sonchifolia ; Suwthiitle-leaved Centaury. 

 Calices palmate-spiny ; leaves subdecurrent, spinulous, re- 

 pand-toothed. Stem simple, angular. Found on the coast 

 of the Mediterranean. 



VOL. i. 2-1. 



39. Centaurea Seridis. Calices palmate, spiny ; leaves 

 decurrent, tomentose, oblong, the lowest sinuate-toothed. 

 A tomentose plant, hardly a foot high, with the stems branch- 

 ing a little; ray of the flower purple ; disk whitish, with few 

 florets : perennial. Native of Spain. 



40. Centaurea Romana. Calices palmate-spiny ; leaves 

 decurrent, unarmed ; radical leaves pinnatifid, the end-lobe 

 largest. Root biennial; stems three feet in height; flowers 

 large, red, appearing in July, and ripening seed in Septem- 

 ber. It is a native of the Campania of Rome. 



41. Centaurea Sphsrocephala. Calices palmate-spiny; 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate, petioied, toothed ; root annual ; 

 leaves woolly. Native of Spain and Barbary. 



42. Centaurea Isnardi. Calices palmate-spiny ; leaves 

 lyrate-toothed, hispid, almost stem-clasping; flowers sessile, 

 terminal; root perennial ; flowers purple, solitary, appear- 

 ing in June and July. 



43. Centaurea Napifolia ; Turnip-leaved Centaury. Calices 

 palmate-spiny ; leaves decurrent, sinuate, spinulous ; radical 

 leaves lyrate. Root annual ; flowers terminating, corolla 

 radiate, purple. Native of the Archipelago. This species 

 may be increased and treated in the same manner as the 

 common annual blue-bottle. 



44. Centaurea Aspera ; Rough Centaury. Calices palmate, 

 three-spined ; leaves lanceolate, toothed. Found about 

 Montpellier, in Tuscany, and in Portugal. 



*****Calcitrapae : with the Spines of the Calix compound. 



45. Centaurea Benedicta; Blessed Thistle. Calices double, 

 spiny, woolly, involucred ; leaves semidecurrent, toothletted, 

 spiny. Root annual ; stem erect, roundish, channelled, 

 rough, one or two feet high, often branched towards the top; 

 leaves long, elliptical, rough, bright green above, whitish 

 underneath. Flowers from June to September, and is a 

 native of Spain and the Levant. This plant obtained the 

 appellation of Bfnediclus, from its being supposed to possess 

 extraordinary medical powers ; for, exclusively of those qua- 

 lities usually ascribed to bitters, it was thought to be a 

 powerful alexipharmic, and capable of curing the plague, 

 and other malignant febrile disorders ; it was also reputed to 

 be good against worms, as well as against all sorts of poison. 

 Simon Paulli declares, that it has no equal in consolidating 

 putrid and stubborn ulcers, and even cancers. He relates 

 the case of a woman, whose breasts were wasted by a cancer 

 to the very ribs, and yet was cured by washing them with 

 the distilled water of this plant, and sprinkling them with the 

 powder of its leaves. And Arnoldus de Villa Nova relates, 

 that he saw the putrid and hollow ulcers of a man, who had 

 all the flesh of his legs consumed to the very bone, and who 

 had tried all other medicines in vain, cured by the following 

 recipe : take the bruised leaves of this plant, and boil them 

 with some generous wine, then add some melted hog's lard: 

 let them boil a little more, and then put in some wheat flour, 

 stirring it about all the while with a spatula, till it comes to 

 the consistence of an ointment, which is to be laid warm 

 upon the ulcers twice a day. However, notwithstanding all 

 these high commendations, we do not find this plant consi- 

 dered as of any great importance in the modern materia 

 rnedica. In loss of appetite, where the stomach has been 

 injured by irregularities, it is allowed that the good effects of 

 the infusion of this plant have been often experienced. The 

 decoction of it also in water, or posset-drink, still maintains 

 its popular reputation as a gentle vomit, for which purpose 

 it is to be drank in pretty large quantities. Many persons 

 mistake the Milk Thistle for this plant. Meyrick says, that 

 the leaves of this species are bitter and stomachic, and that 

 an infusion of them, taken in large quantities, excites vomit- 



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