SYNGENESIA. FRUSTRANEA. Centabrea. 959 
Blue-bottle, or Corn-flower. Knapweed. (Hurt-sickle. Scotch: 
Blue-Bonnets. Irish: Gormon. Welsh: Crammenog yr yd. E.) Corn¬ 
fields. A. June—Aug.* * 
(C. Ja'cea. Calyx-scales membranous, torn, lower ones pinnatifid: 
leaves strap-spear-shaped; radical ones broader, toothed. 
E. Bot. 1678 —FI. Dan. 519. 
Lower-leaves obovato-lanceolate, petiolate, toothed: upper ones entire, ses¬ 
sile. Scales of the involucre, (calyx,) pale brown, shining; the outer 
ones deeply pinnatifid ; the inner or uppermost torn, in which respect it 
differs greatly from C. nigra. Hook. Radiant Jlorets numerous, large, 
light crimson, spreading ; those of the disk much shorter, rather darker. 
Seeds to the latter only, inversely conical, crowned with a simple row of 
very short black bristles. Sm. 
Brown Knapweed. Moist meadows and groves. Sent from Ireland in 
1796 by Mr. Templeton. In Sussex. Mr. Borrer. In a plantation at 
Newbigging Muir, near Belmont castle 1811. Mr. Young. Invercarrity 
* The expressed juice of the petals makes a good blue ink ; it stains linen of a beau¬ 
tiful blue, but the colour is not permanent in the mode it has hitherto been applied. Mr. 
Boyle says, the juice of the central florets, with the addition of a very small quantity of 
alum, makes a lasting transparent blue, not inferior to ultramarine. Gent. Mag. 1748 . 
Cows, goats, and sheep eat it. Horses and swine refuse it. (Varieties of divers colours 
are often introduced as hardy annuals into flower gardens. Assuredly the imaginative 
powers of female intellect are never more amiably or more successfully employed, than in 
illustrating the beauties of nature. With how much truth and elegance does the authoress 
of “ Flora Domestica ” depict our present species. “The beauty of flowers does not 
lie wholly in their vivid colours and bright contrasts: observe the Corn-flower,—what a 
beautiful coronet of sky-blue florets ! every floret a fairy vase, in the depth of which 
nature prepares sweet nectar for the butterfly and the bee ! But when these have disap¬ 
peared, there is beauty also in the winged children they have left, rocking each other in 
its green cradle. In some of the species, these winged offspring are peculiarly beautiful; 
they seem like fairies’ shuttlecocks, elegantly variegated at the base, and set with the most 
delicate feathers of a jet black ; so delicate are these feathers, that to the unassisted eye 
they show like hairs. Then examine how the pistil is affixed to Its centre ; how one 
minute groove is fitted to another, with a nicety of mechanism, so finished, so beautiful! 
What human hand could form one seed like this ?—this little seed, which, in its minute 
and exquisite perfection, is scattered abroad by thousands, unnoticed and unseen !” Our 
plant was named Cyanus after a youthful devotee of Flora, whose chief occupation seems 
to have been loitering in the fields and weaving garlands with this and other corn-flowers ; 
perchance, occasionally permitting a truant thought to wander into a tender veiD, though 
never inspiring sweeter lays than those of the English Improvisatrice. 
“ There is a flower, a purple flower, 
Sown by the wind, nursed by the shower. 
O’er which Love has breathed a powerful spell. 
The truth of whispering hope to tell. 
* * ♦ # * 
* * « * * 
Now, gentle flower, I pray thee tell, 
If my lover loves me, and loves me well; 
So may the fall of the morning dew 
Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue.’* 
As an agriculturist, alluding to the gay Blue-bottle, Corn Poppy, May-weed, and Corn 
Marigold, beautiful but troublesome plants, Holdich justly remarks, in his Essay on 
Weeds, “ The above class, with their gaudy colours, like heralds of spring and summer, 
proclaim bad farming to the landlord, the tenant, and the passenger ; and announce the 
neglect of using clean seed-corn, judicious manuring, fallowing, the row culture, and 
horse-hoe husbandry.” E.) 
VOL. III. 2 B 
