666 = 
O&ob. upon the Stalks, and they are deeply cut and 
- divided ; but in a wild Manner. 
The Flowers are large, and of a fine deli- 
cate yellow: they terminate all the Branches; 
and befide their Number and. their Colour, both 
which are great Recommendations, thes have a 
- very highly perfumed Scent. 
They are form’d as the Flowers of the firft 
defcribed Centaurea, but larger in all their Parts, 
and with {mooth Cups. Thefe-are compofed of a 
{mall Number of broad oval Scales laid one over 
another ; and the whole Cup is fwoln toward the 
Bottom, and gather’d up in a kind of Neck at | 
the Top. \ 
The Flofcules contain’d within this are of two 
Kinds, but all tubular: the greater Number 
are {mall, and compofe the Difk ; the others are 
much larger, and make the Verge. 
The Flofcules in the Difk have each five thort 
Filaments, with long Buttons, which coalefce 
into a Cylinder: they have alfo the Rudiment of 
a Seed underneath, and a Style: the larger, or 
Female Flowers of the Verge, have only the 
Rudiment of a Seed underneath, and that abor- 
tive. 
The Clafs atic Place of the Plant are known 
from thefe Characters; the coalefcent Buttons 
fhew it to be one of the Syngenefia, and the abor- 
tive Rudiment of the Flofcules of the Verge fhew 
it to belong to the Polygamia fruftranea, 
} into Flower: 
A COMPLEAT BODY 
Culture of this CENTAUREA. 
It is an Annual: Nativé of the Fatt, but hardy 
enough to bear the cold of our Climate through 
the whole Period of its Growth. The common 
Mould of the Garden is too rich for ir- ; the beft 
Compoft is a Mixture of equal Parts of this and 
Pafture Mould. 
Let fuch a Mixture be made in the End of 
March, and thrown into a warm Spot of the 
Garden. 
Let the Surface be levelled, and Seeds faved 
{ the preceding Autumn be fown upon this, pretty 
thick ; when the Plants come up, let them be 
thin’'d, and encouraged by frequent Waterings. 
They are never to be removed out of this Spot's 
but from Time to Time the weakeft are to be 
pulled up, till thofe favourite Plants which re- 
maim have a Yard Diftance. 
Let not the Gardener think the Ground wafted 
upon them in this Manner: there will be more 
Flowers on four Plants thus manag’d, than upon 
ten in the common Way; and the Plants them- 
felves: will be handfomer, and fhew themfelves 
the better. 
They muft be weeded frequently, and the 
Earth at Times broke between them; and one 
Plant being marked for Seed, Care mutt be taken 
that it do not exhauft the Root, by producing foo 
“many Flowers. 
The ftrongeft Plant fhould be fleded for this 
Purpofe, and this is ufually the firtt that comes 
the Seed fhould be gather’d when 
juft ripe, and kept till Spine. ) 
6. 
| Few Plants can better claim their Place for | 
P I. 56. Singularity than the golden Cotyledon; nor is that 
Fig. 6. its whole Recommendation. ‘The Flowers are 
numerous, and fo well difpofed, that the Clutter 
of them never fails of pleafing even, the incu- 
rious. — 
The old Authors were acquainted with it. Ray 
has copy’d from Morison, as he from others, the 
Name Cotyledon radice tuberofa longa, repente: Co- | 
tyledon with a long, créeping, tuberous Root. 
CAMERARIuS has called it, umbilicus repens: and 
VAN Roven, Cosyledon folis pelts 
with Shield-like Leaves. 
Linn us preferves the fame genetical Name, | 
and adds as the Diftinction of the Species, foliis | 
cucullatis, ferrato-dentatis, alternis, caule ramofo 
Slovibus erettis: upright, flower’d, branch’d Coty- 
Jedon, with cucullated Leaves indented deeply at 
the Edges, and thofe on the Stalk placed alter- 
nately. | 
The Root is long and thick; it ruts under | 
the Surface, and is Meow on the Outfide, white 
within, and hung with many Fibres: from feve- 
ral Parts of it there alfo ftick out little Tubero- 
fities, which fend out Fibres of their own, and | 
Cotyledon | 
GOL DEN,C.0 T.Y:L.E DO WN. 
run every Way; encreafing the Plant abun- 
dantly. 
In Autumn appears a Clufter of beautiful 
Leaves; and in Spring when they decay, rifes the 
Stalk; this is a great Recommendation of the 
Plant, that it has two States of Beauty; for the 
Leaves which continue green during Winter, are 
remarkably diftinowith’d by their Form and Co- 
Jour. Eight or ten of thefe form the Clufter; 
they have long Footftalks, and they rife toletably 
| ereet: 
The Footftalks are thick, flethy, hollow’d, 
and purple toward the Ground. 
The Leaves are rounded, but they are cut in 
deen at the Infertion of the Stalk; this not being 
fixed under the Leaf, but at the Edge within 
this deep Nick: the whole Edge of the Leaf is 
deeply and irregularly indenred. Its Subftance is 
thick, flefhy, and full of Juice; and the Edges 
rife all the Way from the Footftalk on each Side, 
fo that the whole is elegantly hollowed. 
Toward Spring thefe often acquire a redifh 
Flue, and this is the firft Stage of their Decay : 
in April they fall to the Ground, and. fade, and 
in their Place appears the Stalk for flowering. 
This 
