CCXVIII.— THE PERFOLIATE YELLOW-WORT. 
B/ackstonia perfoliata Hudson. 
W ITH that perception of natural affinities upon which we have previously 
commented, the early botanical writers mostly recognise a close connection 
between the Centaury, though best known with pink flowers, and the Yellow-wort. 
The two may sometimes be found growing side by side on some sunny bank of 
chalk, when the resemblance in their general habit — stiff, erect, and cymosely 
branched — their opposite, united, and entire leaves, and their star-like blossoms, 
is at once apparent. The Yellow-wort is, however, less generally distributed than 
the pink Centaury. 
The earliest references we have been able to trace to the beautiful plant now 
known as Blackstonia perfoliata Hudson are those in the little undated herbal 
professedly edited by Henry VIll’s illustrious physician Linacre, and published as 
“ Macer’s Herbal. Practysd by Doctor Lynacro,” and in that published in 1550 as 
“A litle Herball by Anthony Askham, Physycyon,” both of which books, copying 
from the same original, speak of it as More Centory or Earthgall. The undated book, 
possibly the earlier, since Linacre died in 1524, says : — 
“ More Centory or Earthgall hath leves lyke to the Lesse Centory, but more whyter, and yelowe flowers, and flowreth not 
but in the top.” 
Askham similarly fixes the identity of the plant of which he is writing by 
saying : — 
“It is named the More Centory or Earthgall : his floures be yelowe in the croppe.” 
Twenty years, later Pena and Lobel, in their “ Adversaria,” write of it as 
Centaureum luteum , and as occurring on the hills above Bristol ; and in 1 597 Gerard, 
who styles it Centaurium parvum luteum Lobelii , says : — 
“The yellowe Centorie hath leaues, stalkes, and seede like the other \_Centaurion umbellatum Gilibert], and is in each 
respect alike, sauing that the flowers heereof are of a perfect yellowe colour, which setteth foorth the difference ” ; 
adding that the plant occurs “ upon the chalkie-cliffes of Greenhithe.” 
In Bauhin’s “ Pinax ” (1671), the plant bears the name Centaurium luteum 
perfoliatum which it retained in general use until the times of Ray and Blackstone. 
Ray in his “ Synopsis ” says that it grows in mountainous and rather dry pastures, and 
adds that its leaves are noteworthy, the opposite pairs being united, as in the Teazle, 
and of a glaucous colour, while the flowers are yellow and divided into eight lobes. 
In his “ Species Plantarum ” (1753) Linne placed the plant under the genus 
Gentiana , with which it is unquestionably nearly related ; and it was not until the 
twelfth edition of his “ Systema Naturae” (1766) that he adopted, from Paul 
Renealm’s “ Specimen Historiae Plantarum ” of 16 1 1, the name Chlora. This name, 
obviously derived from the Greek fkaipos, chloros, yellow, with reference to the 
flowers, has been in general use until recently, when it became apparent that, under 
