COSN-FLOWEM. 119 



stitueiiey to vindicate the flower on the ground of the most 

 commonplace usefulness^ for it supplies breakfast^ dinner, 

 and tea to any number of bees and butterflies, which 

 literally rush upon it, so that to the butterfly collector 

 it often proves a profitable decoy. The Painted Lady, 

 amongst many others, has a particular liking for the 

 hypothetical beautiful youth. 



Amongst the hardy annuals that will bloom abundantl}' 

 in any kind of soil in a sunny garden there are four good 

 blue-bottles — namely, C. cyanus, now before us, the height 

 of the plant two to three feet, silvery in stem and leaf, 

 the flowers varying in colour from white to dark purple ; 

 C. crocodylum, the crocodile flower, the plant averaging from 

 one to two feet in height, the flowers being purple and 

 white ; C. dejiressa, which is never depressed in spirits, but 

 only in stature, being but one foot high — a silvery plant, 

 with flowers rather less showy than those of our great, true, 

 weedy, and wonderful " corn-flower j ■" and C. involucrata, 

 a very involved crater, the involucre curious in structure, 

 the flowers yellow. The last-named is a somewhat ugl\' 

 thing, that the florist may with propriety hand over to the 

 botanists and the artists. 



The perennial centaureas comprise a few fine plants, such 

 as C. Bahylonica, a gaunt grey Aveedy herb, like the tower 

 of Babel, of noble stature, bearing unattractive yellow 

 flowers ; a truly fine plant for the shrubbery, and a proper 

 companion to any of the mulleins ; C. dealhata, a neat 

 silvery-leaved plant, bearing red flowers that serve as sham 

 rubies to set off the lustre of the " albata plate ; " C 

 Montana, a good border plant, producing flowers like those 

 of C. cyanus, but larger, and with a wider range of colour 

 in its variations. 



