The Corn Flower or Blue Bottle is common all over Britain; you find it
in the cornfields and by the roadside, and it flowers all summer and
autumn.
This pretty plant belongs to the same family as the Thistles. The
flower-heads are made up of a great many flowers grouped together. In
the outer row you find a circle of beautiful bright blue flowers, each
of which consists of a blue tube which widens out at the mouth like a
trumpet, and is edged with seven sharp points.
Inside this outer circle there is a mass of darker blue flowers,
slightly tinged with rose-colour. These flowers are very much smaller,
and their pinky tubes are very tiny. So are the strap-shaped teeth at
the mouth of the tube. Coming out of the mouth of each tube is the dark
purple tip of the seed-vessel.
Underneath this bunch of flowers there is a double ring of green scales
with fringed edges. These scales are tightly pressed together in the
shape of a cup, but they are not prickly as in some of the Thistles.
The stems of the Corn Flower are very tough. The plant is tall and
straggling, and it has narrow strap-shaped leaves with smooth edges.
These leaves, as well as the stems, are often covered with white woolly
down.