Annual. — Flowers from June to August. 
Root somewhat woody, tapering, whitish, and fibrous. Stems 
several, nearly upright, from 6 inches to a foot or more high, sim- 
ple or branched, rather rigid, roundish, leafy, clothed with short 
rough hairs. Leaves numerous, alternate, sessile, oblong, bluntish, 
wavy, entire or unequally serrated, gradually smaller from the root 
upwards. Peduncles naked, each bearing at its summit a round 
tuft of small, light-blue flowers, on short partial stalks ; each tuft 
surrounded by several egg-shaped, smooth, bracleas (see fig. 5). 
Calyx (fig. 1 .) deeply divided into 5 segments, permanent. Corolla 
(fig. 4.) of a light-blue colour, sometimes white, of 1 petal, divided 
nearly to the base into 5 long, narrow, strap-shaped, bluntish, up- 
right segments. Anthers oblong, connected at the base. Germen 
roundish, below the corolla. Style thread-shaped, longer than the 
stamens. Stigma club-shaped, purplish. Capsule (fig. 7.) imper- 
fectly 2-celled, many-seeded, opening at the top, and crowned by 
the proper, 5-toothed calyx. Seeds numerous, somewhat egg- 
shaped, shining. 
A very pretty little plant, native of Europe, Siberia, and the north of Africa. It 
is closely related to Phyteuma , t. 205 ; but, as Sir J. E. Smith observes, the par- 
titions of the capsule, and its terminal entire orifice, added to the combined anthers, 
afford perhaps good marks of generic distinction. In its general appearance it very 
much resembles a Scabious, as it does also starved specimens of the exotic Gilia 
capitata. The whole plant is milky, and is sometimes eaten by sheep. Linnsus 
says, that bees are particularly fond of tbe flowers. It varies much in size, and on 
the sea-coast of Cornwall it is only about an inch high when full grown, and the 
whole plant is very hairy. 
Persoon observes, that the economy of the flowers of this genus is very singular. 
The florets of the disk have fertile anthers, which are united with each other only 
at the base, and club-shaped, barren, hairy pistils. On the contrary, the florets of 
the circumference, which are furnished with true emarginate stigmas, proper for 
fertilizing the seeds, have barren stamens ; hence the proper stigmas receive the 
pollen from the club-shaped ones, upon which it is first received, as they pass 
through the anthers. See Linn. Syst. Vcg. (15th edit.) p. 841 ; and With. Bot. 
Arr. (7th edit.) v. ii. p. 311. 
I trust no apology is necessary for introducing here the following 
very beautiful lines, from the pen of that true poetess of nature, 
Mrs. Mary Howitt. 
“ On the third day of creation, before mankind had birth. 
Ten thousand thousand flowers sprang up, to beautify the earth ; 
From the rejoicing earth sprang up each radiant, bursting bud ; 
And God looked down, at eventide, aud saw that they were good. 
And now, as then, ten thousand flowers from the gracious earth outburst, 
And every flower that spvingeth up is goodly as the first : 
The red' rose is the red rose still ; and from the lily’s cup 
An odour, fragrant as at first, like frankincence goes up. — 
Oh, flowers, fair shining flowers, like crowned kings ye are ! 
Each, in the nature of its kind, unchanging as a star; — 
Empires have fallen to decay, forgotten e’en in name — 
All man’s sublimest works decay, but ye are still the same !’ 
Literary Souvenir, 1837 . 
