Bot. Pl. -as. [mod. Lat., fem. of L. cinerārius pertaining to ashes, f. ciner-em ashes. So named from the ash-colored down on the leaves.] A genus of composite plants (now generally included in Senecio), mostly natives of South Africa, with blue or purple flowers, but assuming very various colors under cultivation, They are grown as greenhouse or window plants.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. xxviii. (1633), 281. Cineraria, or ash coloured St. James Wort.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 227. [Plants] not perishing but in excessive Colds.… Cineraria, [etc.].
[1731–7. Miller, Gard. Dict. (ed. 3), s.v. Jacobæa, Jacobæa Africana … African Shrubby Ragwort, with cut Leaves, and the under Part of an Ash Colour.]
1858. Glenny, Gard. Every-day Bk., 274/1. Cinerarias will not bear the frost.
1871. Daily News, 22 March, 4/6. The Great Western Station … is smothered in azaleas, camellias, cinerarias, and lilacs.
