3 J. ENGLISH BOTANY. 
as this plant, or one of its allies, was used as a cure for wounds and various maladies, 
it wus probably held to cure these. Why it should also have had the old name of 
" Cowede " is not very obvious. 
SPECIES IT— CENTAUBEA CYANUS. Linn. 
Plate DCCIX. 
Reich, Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XV. Tab. DCCLXYIII. Fig. 1. 
Uil/ot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2656. 
Annual or biennial. Stem erect, branched, not winged, the 
branches slender, elongated. Lower leaves pinnatipartite, with 
strapshaped or linear distant segments and a larger terminal one, 
more rarely entire and oblanceolate ; upper leaves strapshaj)ed or 
linear-strapshaped, entire. Anthodes on naked peduncles. Peri- 
cline slightly arachnoid-hairy, ovate-ovoid ; appendages of the phyl- 
larics narrow, the margins cut into unequal narrowly-triangular 
teeth ; those of the outer phyllaries often silvery-white, of the 
middle ones usually brownish-black or fawn-coloured, witli the 
teeth sometimes edged with white. Plorets blue, the radiant ones 
with the limb divided about half-way down into triangular-strap- 
shaped teeth. 
In cultivated fields and by roadsides. Rather common, and 
generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Biennial or annual. Summer 
and Autumn. 
Stem 1 to 3 feet high, slender, furrowed, somewhat corym- 
bosely branched, with the branches ascending. Pericline i t° i inch 
across, longer than broad, with much fewer phyllaries than in the 
preceding species ; inner ones much longer than the others. 
Florets of tho ray brilliant blue; those of the disk pale purplish- 
rose with the limb blue. Anthers purple. Achenes silvery-grey, 
slightly pubescent, with a short reddish-white pappus. Plant green, 
wiili the stem, peduncles, and leaves more or less white with 
arachnoid pubescence. 
Blue-bolllc, or Coni-Jloiccr. 
French, Centauree Blcucl. German, Kornblume. 
The common name of this species of Centaurea is given to it from the bottle shape 
«>f the involucre and its brilliant bine flower. The Corn-cockle must not be confounded 
with this Corn-flower. Hardly any (lower is of so beautiful a blue as this, and in the 
country districts it is often called blue-cup and blue-bonnet ; but the toughness of its 
Btemfl gained for it the far less complimentary name of lani-sklde. 
Our own ports often allude to this peculiarity. 
