SMALL KNAPWEED. 155 



dark in colour. The florets are of a rich crimson tint, 

 and either all fertile and similar in character, or some- 

 times found with an outer row of larger and neuter 

 florets, as we see in the greater knapweed, C. ScaUosa, 

 or the corn bluebottle, C. fyanus. As we figure both 

 these latter in our series, a comparison between them and 

 our present illustration, that of the un-rayed lesser knap- 

 weed, can readily be made. The aspect of the plant under 

 these two onditions is so different, that many of the 

 older botanists have made two distinct species, the form 

 we figure being the C. nigra, and the type having the 

 outer ring of larger rays being the C. nigrescent. It is now, 

 however, satisfactorily ascertained that the two forms are 

 merely modifications of the same thing, and the present form 

 being considerably the commoner is accepted as the type 

 form, and the other as a variety of it. Ray, in his 

 " Historia plantarum," a folio of which the first edition 

 was published in the year 1686, affirms that the variety 

 is no less frequently met with than the common sort in 

 the west of England, and tells us that some flower-heads 

 were even brought to him, in which not only the outer 

 ring but the whole head, was composed of neutral florets. 

 This latter peculiarity is very exceptional, and, in spite 

 of Ray's assertion to the contrary, we must still believe, 

 judging from our own observation over the country, east, 

 west, north, and south, that the rayed variety is almost 

 always a rarity compared with the typical form the form 

 we illustrate. We sometimes find plants in which the 

 leaves are a good deal more cut than in the ordinary 

 examples, and, like almost all crimson or purple flowers, 

 we may, though very rarely, find the plant varying with 

 white florets. Martyn quotes many provincial names, 



