= 
756 CENTAUREA. 
flowers, and the scales of their calyx pectorately 
ciliated. One of these, the hyssop-leaved, is a 
very small, evergreen, Spanish undershrub; and 
all the others are hardy perennial-rooted herbs. 
A native species, C. negra, is the common black 
knapweed of our pastures. This is very abun- 
dant and generally ditfused; it usually attains a 
height of about a foot, and blooms from May till 
August ; and it ranks as one of the most stubborn 
and troublesome weeds of our grass fields. All 
the species of this group, except one} carry pur- 
_ ple-coloured flowers.—Another group, comprising 
| between 20 and 30 species, have for the most 
| part reddish-purple flowers, with green disks, 
| and their calyx fringedly ciliated. One species, 
the panicled, is a biennial; one, the evergreen, is 
a tender evergreen herb; one, the cineraria, is a 
half-tender herb; and all the others are hardy, 
perennial-rooted herbs. The most interesting to 
the farmer is the very common and annoying 
greater knapweed, C. scabiosa. See the article 
Knapwerp.—A third group, comprising one bien- 
nial, and ten or eleven hardy perennial-rooted 
herbs, have fringed, scarious calyxes, and, for the 
most part, yellow flowers——A fourth group, com- 
prising an annual, two biennials, and about 25 
hardy herbaceous perennials, have mucronatedly- 
ciliated calyxes.—A fifth group, comprising two 
biennials, and about a dozen hardy herbaceous 
perennials, have scarious, sublacerated, ciliate 
calyxes. One of these, C. jacea, is the brown 
| knapweed, so common on our meadowy, clayey 
pastures. All these five groups agree in having 
ciliated calyxes, and they may be regarded as ag- 
gregately constituting the more proper centau- 
reas, in contradistinction to the crupinz, the 
| cyani, the crocodilia, the seridiz, and the calci- 
trapee. 
The crupina group, comprising five hardy an- 
nuals, and three hardy perennials, have the scales 
of their calyx entire. One of the annuals, C. mos- 
chata, is the well-known and very favourite sweet 
sultan, introduced upwards of two centuries ago 
from Persia, and almost everywhere cultivated 
as one of the most handsome of our hardy com- 
posite annuals; and one of the perennials, C. cen- 
taurvum, is the great centaury, introduced from 
Italy before the close of the 16th century, grow- 
ing 4 feet high, and carrying yellow flowers in. 
| July and August.—The cyanus group have for 
their type the well-known bottle-flower or blue- 
bottle, and comprise two half-tender evergreen 
undershrubs, two hardy annuals, and about a 
dozen hardy herbaceous perennials. . Most, like 
the blue-bottle, have blue flowers; but five, in- 
cluding the two undershrubs, have yellow flow- 
ers. The blue-bottle grows wild in our corn- 
fields, yet has long had a place in cottage gar- 
dens. — The crocodylium group have entire 
calyxes, with spinous tops; and three of its spe- 
cies have their tops one-spined, while seven have 
them mucronately spinulose. Some are annuals, 
some biennials, and some perennials, all hardy. | the tonic, antiseptic, and other characteristic 
CENTAURY. 
— The seridia group have the tops of their 
calyxes palmately spinous, and comprise about 
a dozen annuals, four or five biennials, and seven 
or eight perennials, nearly one-half yellow-flow- 
ered, and the others red or purple-flowered. The 
solstitial species, C. solstetzalis, is a pretty yellow- 
flowered annual weed, two feet high, in the fields 
of England, and is popularly called St. Barnaby’s 
thistle; and Isnard’s species, C. Jsnardi, is a 
pretty, purple-fowered, perennial weed, 14 or 15 
inches high, in the Channel Islands, and is popu- 
larly called the Jersey star-thistle—The calci- 
trapa group have the scales of their calyx spi- 
nosely pinnate, and comprise a half-tender per- 
ennial, a hardy biennial, and six or seven hardy 
annuals. The star-thistle, C. calcitrapa, forms the 
type of the group, and is a well-known, annual, 
pink-flowered weed, of the gravelly soils of Eng- 
land. See the article Srar-Tuistix. The blessed 
thistle, C. benedicta, is a medicinal plant, and has 
a place in both the Edinburgh and the Dublin 
pharmacopeeias. It is cultivated, as a hardy 
annual, in the gardens of Britain; and it grows 
wild in Spain and the Grecian islands. Its root 
is whitish, cylindrical, and branched; its stem is 
erect, roundish, channelled, rough, and about 
two feet high ; and its leaves are long, elliptical, | 
rough, and runcinate. It ought, for medicinal 
use, to be cut when in flower, dried with rapidity, | 
Its odour is | 
unpleasant but weak; its taste is exceedingly bit- | 
and preserved in a dry airy place. 
ter, but comparatively transient ; and its virtues, 
according to the degree in which it is admin- 
istered, are variously tonic, diaphoretic, and 
emetic. It anciently acquired the epithet of 
benedicta or blessed from its extraordinary phar- 
maceutic powers; but it has lost most of its cele- 
brity, and is now very seldom used.—The species 
of centaurea most commonly cultivated for or- 
nament are, of hardy annuals, C. cyanus, mos- 
chatus, suaveolens, and adami ; of hardy biennials, 
C. splendens, romana, and salmonatica ; of hardy 
perennials, C. glauca, alpina, phrygia, rupestris, 
austriaca, pectinata, venosa, nigra, montana, pul- 
lata, ovata, ovina, maculosa, coreacea, steebe, and 
orientalis ; and of frame perennials, spenosa, 
sempervirens, egyptica, and argentea. 
CENTAURY,—botanically Hrythrea Centau- 
rium. An indigenous, ornamental, medicinal, 
annual plant, of the gentian tribe. It is known 
in Sowerby and Smith’s English botany as Chiro- 
nia centaurium, and in many popular writings 
as Common centaury. It grows wild on heaths 
and on dry gravelly pastures. Its root is small, 
woody, and branching; its stem is smooth, quad- 
rangular, erect, and from 6 to 12 inches high ; 
its. leaves are opposite, sessile, elliptical, and 
three-nerved ; and its flowers are produced from 
the angles of the division of the stem, expand 
only in sunshine, have a pink colour, and bloom 
in July and August. The stem, leaves, and 
petals possess an intensely bitter taste, and all 
