COMPOSITE FAMILY 



large; the ray-florets deeply cut into long slender teeth, blue; the 

 disk-florets purple. There are several varieties in cultivation. 



Dusty Miller, Centaurea cineraria or candidissima, and Cen- 

 taurea gymnoscdrpa, are two low-growing perennial Knapweeds 

 prized for their silvery foliage. The entire 

 plants, stems, and leaves, are covered so 

 thick with soft, white hairs that they look 

 like white velvet, and they are planted to 

 contrast with darker growths in borders and 

 in baskets. Of the two, gynmoscarpa has 

 the finer cut leaves, though they are not 

 always as silvery as candidissima, whose 

 leaves are more broadly cut. They are 

 Italian plants and rejoice in the sunshine. 

 The flower-heads are small, rose-violet or 

 purple, and without garden value. 



Dusty Miller. Centmiria 

 gymnoscdrpa 



Stokes' Aster, Stokesia cyhnea, is a most 

 interesting plant in that it has points in com- 

 mon with both asters and centaureas. The 

 marginal row of florets is composed of corollas which have a very 

 short tube at the base, greatly broadened at the apex and cut into 

 long, narrow strips. The centre is filled with tubular florets of the 

 same color or darker than the margin. In cultivation the flower- 

 heads are three to four inches across, and the blossom looks hke 

 a centaurea. 



SWEET SULTAN 



Centaurea moschata. 



Hardy annual brought from the Levant into England about three 

 hundred years ago. 



Stems. — Erect, two feet high, branching below. 

 Leaves. — Pinnatifid; lobes dentate. 



S02 



