CENTAUBY YELLOWWORT. 197 



Parks, and in woods about Richmond. All the Centauries 

 partake of the bitter quality of the tribe, and this species has 

 been used with success as a tonic (Erythrsea centaurium). 



Edward says that Kent furnishes abundant specimens of 

 the common Centaury, and there the little Branched Centaury 

 also grows. Hawkhurst is near enough to the sea to catch 

 the sea breezes, and even a dash of the briny spray in a high 

 wind. This accounts for the Branched Centaury growing there, 

 as it does not approve of inland situations. It is only two or 

 three inches high, shrubby in its growth, and its numerous 

 branches are beset with solitary flowers of a deeper hue than in 

 the last species (E. pulchella, Plate XII., fig. 7). 



Fanny brought the Dwarf Centaury (E. littoralis), from near 

 Fowey in Cornwall, where it grew near the seashore. The- 

 leaves are large and oval ; the plant is dumpy, and the flowers 

 pretty, as in the other species, but few. 



The Broad-leaved Centaury is by some believed to be only- 

 a variety of the Dwarf Centaury. As its name indicates, its 

 leaves are broader, but its habit is much the same. The shores 

 of Lancashire are given by Sir J. E. Smith as its habitat. All 

 the Centauries close their blossoms at noon. 



A rare British member of the Gentianella family she founct 

 upon raised ground by the side of the Marazion Marsh. That 

 once busy town, Marazion, is now a waste ; the earnest, 

 money-making inhabitants mingle with the dust ; the mines 

 of tin, by means of which they carried on a trade with the 

 Phoanicians, are closed and forgotten ; and the turrets of St. 

 Michael's Mount behold only swamp and heath, where the 

 once prosperous town flourished ; and in the place of the Jewish 

 traders rise scarce and beautiful plants of every form and hue, 

 from the stately Royal Fern, emulating a tree in size, to the 

 tiny Gentianella, with its thread-shaped stem of two inches, 

 and its yellow funnel-formed corolla, cloven into four segments 

 (Exacum filiforme). 



I have the YeUowwort (Chlora perfoliata, Plate XIL,fig. 8), 



