COMPOSITiE. 35 



" Blue-bottle, tliee my numbers fain would raise, 

 And thy complexion cliallenges my praise. 

 Thy countenance, like summer skies, is fair; 

 But, ah ! how different thy vile manners are. 

 Ceres for this excludes thee from my song. 

 And swains, to gods and me a sacred throng, 

 A treacherous guest, destruction thou dost bring 

 To th' hospitable field where thou dost spring. 

 Thou blunt'st the very reaper's sickle, and so 

 In life and death becom'st the farmer's foe." 



All over Germany this is a favourite flower, and the fields in that land look much 

 gayer than our own, both from the abundance of this Corn-flower and from a variety 

 of other blue blossoms among the corn. Possibly the presence of these plants is not 

 indicative of the best sort of husbandry. 



The expressed juice of the petals of this Knapweed makes good blue ink ; it 

 dyes linen of a beautiful blue, but the colour is not permanent. The plant was named 

 Cyanus, after a youthful devotee of Flora, whose chief occupation seems to have been 

 loitering in the fields and weaving garlands of this and other corn-flowers ; — 



" There is a flower, a purple flower. 

 Sown by the wind, raised by the shower. 

 O'er which Jove has breathed a powerful spell, 

 The truth of whispering hope to tell. 



Now, gentle Flora, I pray thee tell 



If my lover loves me, and loves me welL 



So may the fall of the morning dew 



Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue." 



The Knapweeds are sometimes called Iron-weeds, from the hard ball on which the 

 floi'ets are set ; they are like thistles, but may readily be distinguished from them by 

 the absence of spines or prickles. The Centaury had a certain medicinal reputation in 

 days gone by. Gerarde, after recounting other virtues of the herb, says, — " The 

 Italian Physitians do give the powder of the leaves once in three days, in the quantity 

 of a dram with annise or caraway seeds in wine or other liquor, which prevaileth 

 against the dropsie and green sickenesse : — 



" My flowre is sweet in smell, bitter my juyce in taste. 

 Which purge choler, and helps liver, that else would waste." 



Section III.— SERIDIA. D. 0. 



Phyllaries with adpressed or spreading corneous appendages, 

 palmatcly divided into short nearh equal spines, not decurrent 

 along the borders of the phyllaries. 



