> as lemmas

a. Either of two European plants of the gentian family ( Gentianaceae), Centaurium erythraea (more fully common centaury, †less centaury, †lesser centaury, †small centaury, †smaller centaury), and yellow-wort, Blackstonia perfoliata (in full yellow centaury, †more centaury, †great centaury, †greater centaury). Centaurium erythraea (formerly Gentiana Centaurium, Erythraea centaurium) is a biennial (rarely annual) herbaceous plant having pink flowers with five lobes. Blackstonia perfoliata (formerly Chlora perfoliata) is a somewhat taller annual herbaceous plant having yellow flowers with four to eight lobes. Both, like many gentians, are extremely bitter in taste, and were formerly often used in tonics and febrifuges.The name yellow centaury is now more commonly used for another plant of the gentian family, Cicendia filiformis.

†2. Originally (in full †great centaury, †greater centaury, †more centaury): a blue-flowered plant of the family Asteraceae ( Compositae), perhaps Rhaponticoides centaurium or Leuzea rhapontica (cf. rhapontic n. 2) (obsolete). In later use (usually with distinguishing word): any of various plants of (or formerly belonging to) the genus Centaurea (family Asteraceae ( Compositae)). Cf. centaurea n. Obsolete.mealy centaury: see the first element. [The application of the names great centaury , greater centaury , and more centaury to a plant very different from that known by the same name to earlier herbalists (see sense 1a and compare note in etymology) follows the use of post-classical Latin centaurium magnum and centaurium maius by Jean Ruel (in his translations of Dioscorides and in De natura stirpium libri tres, both first half of the 16th cent.).]