1874 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
881 
The Pearly Everlasting. 
There are many of our wild flowers which 
we admire as we see them in the woods and 
fields, but with which we do not think of asso¬ 
ciating the idea of cultivation. Yet many of 
our very common plants are prized abroad, and 
if one consults foreign garden books and cata¬ 
logues, he will find both high praise and high 
large corymb of flowers, or rather heads of 
flowers; for these heads, though not much 
larger than a pea, are made up of very minute 
florets, surrounded by many pearly-white 
scales, to which the beauty of the flower- 
heads is due. The engraving shows the sum¬ 
mit of a stem, with the flower-heads of the 
natural size. In England this plant has been 
tried, among others, in bedding, on account of 
some experiments in coloring it, after the Eu¬ 
ropean methods, and duly report the results. 
----M O —--. 
The American Star-Thistle. 
One of the showy plants of Arkansas, Texas, 
and other parts of the far West, is Centaurea 
Americana , the American Star-Thistle. It is 
pearly everlasting. —(Antennaria rnargaritacea.) American star-thistle. —{Centaurea Americana.) 
prices given to things that he has known all his 
life after a fashion—but being wild flowers he 
has been on mere speaking terms, but has not, 
as it were, cultivated any friendship with 
them. Among the plants which are common, 
at least all through the Northern States, is the 
Pearly Everlasting—its botanical name is An¬ 
tennaria for the genus—the derivation of this 
term is rather too obscure to describe here, 
but its full name is A. rnargaritacea , and near¬ 
ly every one knows that this last means pearly. 
The closely related “Life-Everlasting,” or 
“Balsam,” (the very strong and pleasant-smel¬ 
ling plant of which every good grandmother 
keeps a bunch in the garret to be handy “ in 
case of sickness,”) though it much resembles 
this, must not be confounded with it. That is 
botanically Gnaphalium polycephalum, and 
though a very good plant in its way, it is only 
an annual, and its less globular and more dingy 
heads, together with its strong odor, will at 
once distinguish it. Our pearly everlasting is 
a perennial, throwing up a number of stems a 
foot or two high from one root; these stems 
are very downy, indeed we may say woolly, 
and the numerous long, narrow leaves, are very 
woolly too, underneath, but green above; the 
stems branch very much at the top to form a 
the light color of its stems and foliage, but 
there are many better plants for such uses than 
this. Our reason for calling attention to it is 
because its flowers have all the character of 
those known as “ Everlasting flowers,” and for 
persons who are fond of making up winter, or 
dried bouquets, wreaths, and the like, this is one 
of the very best things they can have. Indeed, 
wild though it is, it comes nearer the real “ im¬ 
mortelle” of the French, than any of our cul¬ 
tivated flowers. We find that in the European 
catalogues of dried flowers, those of our native 
Pearly Everlasting are offered at a higher price 
than some of those we cultivate. It may be 
too late this year for those wEo wish to collect 
these flowers to find them—as we can not al¬ 
ways time such things exactly right, but we 
are quite sure that lovers of everlasting flowers 
will be glad to have their attention called to 
this one. The flowers for drying should be 
collected before they have expanded too far; 
the flower-heads of some plants will show more 
of a yellowish center than those of others, and 
these should be avoided as far as possible. Of 
course only the most pearly should be chosen, 
and these, after tying in bunches, be dried away 
from dust and flies. To find out what our 
pearly everlasting is capable of, we shall try 
an annual, growing two feet or more high, with 
a grooved stem; the upper leaves are entire, 
but the lower ones have broad teeth on the 
margins. The stem is branched above, each 
branch bearing a very large head of lilac-color¬ 
ed flowers, which is two or three inches across, 
and has much the appearance of an enormous 
thistle head. The outer flowers of the head 
are much larger than the others, and sterile, m 
which respect the genus differs from that to 
which our common thistles belong, as they 
have the flowers in the head all alike. The 
engraving gives a head of the natural size, and 
shows the greater size of the outer flowers. 
The bud or unopened head, given below the 
full one, shows a marked peculiarity of the 
plant; the scales to the involucre which sur¬ 
rounds the head, are most beautifully fringed 
upon the edges, with a row of straw-colored 
teeth or points. This showy plant has been in 
cultivation for the last half century, and though 
the seeds are kept by all the principal seeds¬ 
men, we see it in cultivation much more rarely 
now than we did a dozen or twenty years ago. 
It is a capital plant for producing a bold effect, 
especially if planted in a large clump, against 
a background of sbrubs. It is usually sown like 
ordinary annuals in the open ground, but the 
