COMPOSITE 141 



The type and different varieties grow on hill-sides, woods, and dry places. 

 June-September. 



C. solstitialis L. Yellow Centaurea. A whitish tomentose plant, with 

 erect branching stems. Lower leaves'lyrate or pinnatifid ; upper ones lanceo- 

 late or linear, decurrent. Flowers yellow, in terminal, globose heads. Middle 

 bracts of involucre with a very long yellow spine, and with several short lateral 

 spines. Fields and waste places, rather common. July-October. 



C. Calcitrapa L. Star-thistle Centaurea. Stems rigid, diffusely branched 

 from beneath the heads. Leaves pinnatifid, with recurved aristate distant lobes. 

 Involucre bracts with long, strong, spreading spines, with a few smaller basal 

 spines. Pappus o. Flowers rose-purple, not extending beyond the spines. 



Waste places and road-sides, very common. June-September. 



C. aspera L. Another very variable species, stems spreading and branched. 

 Leaves linear-oblong, toothed or sinuate, but most variable ; peduncles leafy. 

 Involucre globose, bracts tipped with 5 palmately spreading reflexed spines. 

 Bristles of receptacle white ; pappus white. Flowers purple. 



Waste places, borders of fields and roads ; common, and flowering sometimes 

 throughout the year but chiefly from June to September. 



The following, and perhaps other species of this enormous genus also occur : 

 C. Cyanus L., the blue Corn-cockle of fields and corps ; C. Scabiosa L. 

 (the common greater Knapweed of England) ; C. cinerea Ard. (very rare in 

 the Esterel, etc.). C. melitensis L., and C. salmantica L. (rarely near Tou- 

 lon, Frejus, etc.). C. nervosa Willd., C. uniflora L., and C. flosculosa 

 Balb., grow in the Alps above our limit. 



CRUPINA DC. 



C. vulgaris Pers. = Centaurea Crupina L. A slender branched annual, 

 a foot high. Root-leaves entire and soon disappearing. Stem-leaves rough, 

 pinnatisect, with linear toothed segments. Heads of 4-5 purple flowers. In- 

 volucre oblong, slender, glabrous. Achenes large, inflated, with red or dark 

 brown pappus. 



Dry borders of fields and stony hill-sides. May-August. 



C. Crupinastrum Vis. (Plate XIX). Very similar to the last * but the 

 flower heads are larger, the involucre rounder at the base, and the flowers more 

 numerous; the base of the achenes is compressed, not rounded, and the hilum is 

 small, linear, and oblique. It does not appear to have been recorded from the 

 Var or Alpes-Marit., but may have been overlooked, for it occurs, though rarely, 

 near Bordighera. May-June. 



SERRATULA L. SAW-WORT. 



S. tinctoria L. Plant 1-3 ft. high, erect, branched, with several heads. 

 Leaves very variable, deeply pinnatipartite with finely serrate lobes. Heads rather 

 small, oblong-cylindric. Flowers reddish-purple. Involucre and pappus reddish. 



Woods and damp meadows. July-October. 



S. nudicaulis DC. with simple i-headed stem, naked in the upper portion, 

 and entire lower leaves, grows in mountain woods and pastures, and flowers 

 from June to August. 



S. heterophylla Desf. also has a simple i-headed stem, naked in upper 

 portion, but its lower leaves are lyrate-pinnatipartite and largely toothed. 



It is found in meadows in the Maritime Alps in June and July. 



Jurinea humilis DC. grows on the ridge of Sainte-Baume. June. 



1 See interesting notes on Crupina by M. G. Beauverd in " Plantes nouvelles 

 ou critiques de la Flore du Bassin du Rhone," Part II (Geneve), 1912. He con- 

 siders the ten different binomials under Crupina in " Index Kewensis" may be 

 reduced to these two species. 



