THE CENTAUEY. 285 



CENTAURY. 



Erythrcea. 



Welsh, Bustl y ddaer, Canrhi goch. French, Quinquine des 

 pauvres, Petite centauree. German, Tausendgiildenkraut. 

 Italian, Fiele di terra, Centauro. Spanish, Centaura. 

 Illyric, Gorko Zelje, Ghereizza, Mala Simencina. Arabic, 

 Kantarioon ? 



LINN^EAN. NATURAL. 



Pentandria, Gentianacece. 



Monogynia. Erythrcea. 



" YE odour of centorie et ye smel 

 Comforteth manys branys well, 

 Chasyth wickyd huork [ ? work] owte of ye heed, 

 Betwyn ye herbus it ye sched ;" 



continues the manuscript from which I have so largely 

 quoted in the preceding account. But to what plant 

 it refers becomes very doubtful, when it proceeds : 



" His flour is whyth, his smel is sote, 

 For every soor he may do bote." 



Most certainly none of the Erythraas are white, 

 as indeed their name shews, being derived from a 

 Greek word cpvOpos, " red," and given in allusion to 

 this the prevailing, though not constant, colour of 

 the tribe ; and it is as certain that one of the knap- 

 weeds, or blue bottles (centaurea) is of that hue, 

 namely the (7. cegyptlaca; yet there are but slight 

 grounds for supposing that this is the tribe here 

 intended, as centaury is the established English 



