112 GENTIANACE.E. Microcala. 



1. MICRC^CALA, Link. Compounded of jufxoo-,-, small, and x/}^ or -/.alo^, 

 beautiful: should have been Microcalia, but that proper form of the name was 

 preoccupied. One European species and the following : fl. in spring. 



M. QUadrangularis, Griseb. A little annual, with simple or branching filiform stem, 

 2 or '3 inches high : brunches or peduncles 1-flowered : leaves 2 or 3 pairs, oval or oblong, 

 2 or 3 lines long: calyx at first oblong-campanulate ; in fruit broader, truncate at top and 

 bottom, strongly 4-angled ; the teeth short and subulate : corolla saffron-yellow, 3 lines 

 long. DC. Prodr. ix. 03; Progel in Mart. Fl. Bras. vi. 213, t. 58, fig. 3; Gray, Bot. Calif. 

 i. 480. EJ-UCUIH quadrangulare, Willd. Spec. i. 636. E. injiatum, Hook. & Arn. in Jour. Bot. 

 i. 283. Ciccmlia quadrangularis, Griseb. Gent. 157. Open moist ground, coast of California, 

 from Mendocino Co., southward. (S. Amer.) 



2. ERYTHR.JEA, Renealm. CENTAURY, CANCHALAGUA. (From SQVOQOS, 

 red, the flowers being mostly red or rose-color.) -- Low herbs (of various parts of 

 the world), mainly annuals and biennials; the flowers small or middle-sized, but 

 commonly numerous, in summer. Corolla-lobes becoming narrower with age. 



E. CHIRONIOIDES and E. SPECIOSA, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 479, are Mexican species, not yet 

 found near our borders, forming a section (the genus (ii/mndra of Grisebach) with tube of the 

 corolla rather shorter than the ample lobes, and an oval capsule. All our species have a 

 longer and narrower capsule (elongated-oblong or cylindraceous), and a longer tube to the 

 corolla. Our E. rcnnsta, as to the corolla, is the connecting form. 



* Flowers spicutuly disposed along the rather simple branches and sessile in the few forks. 



E. SPICATA, Pcrs. Strictly erect, a foot or less high : leaves oblong : tube of the rose-col- 

 ored corolla hardly longer than the calyx-lobes, twice the length of the rather narrow 

 lobes. E. Pickcrinyii, Oakes in Hovey Mag. Chironia spicata. Smith, Fl. Graec. t. 238. 

 Coast at Nantucket, Mass. (Oakes), and Portsmouth, Virginia (Ruyel). (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers cymose or paniculately scattered ; ours all rose-red, and with broad stigmas. 



} European species sparingly naturalized in the Atlantic United States: stigmas broadly oval 

 or obovato : lobes of the corolla oblong, obtuse. 



E. CENTAURIUM, Pers. Strictly erect, a span to a foot high : leaves oblong, the lowest form- 

 ing a rosnlate tuft at the root : flowers cymose-clustered, at least the middle ones sessile : 

 lobes of the corolla 2i or 3 lines long. Waste grounds, shores of Lake Ontario (Oswego, 

 New York) and Lake Michigan, Babcock: rare. (Nat, from Eu.) 



E. RAMOSISSIMA, Pers. Lower, more slender, diffusely branched: leaves from oval to lanceo- 

 late, the lowest not rosulate : flowers effuscly cymose, pedicelled : lobes of the corolla only 

 2 lines long. E.pukhdla, Fries, Novit. ii. 31 (Grisebach's var. pulchclla, merely a small 

 form). E. Muhlenbergii, Griseb. in DC. Prodr. ix. 60, as to pi. N. Y. and Penn. E.racum pul- 

 clicllum, Pursh, Fl. i. 100? Chirmia pidchella, Muhl. Cat. 23. E. Pennsylvania, New Jer- 

 sey, &c. : rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 

 .(_ +- Species indigenous from Texas to California: stigmas cuneate or flabellifonn and truncate : 



no rosulate tuft of radical leaves. 



H- Flowers small : lobes of the corolla only li to 2 lines long, much shorter than the tube : an- 

 thers oblong. 



E. Texensis, Griseb. Slender, diffusely much branched above into a loose paniculate- 

 corymbose cyme : leaves linear or the lowest lanceolate and the uppermost reduced to 

 subulate bracts: flowers all slender-pedicelled : corolla (apparently light rose-color) with 

 very slender tube (4 or 5 lines long), and lanceolate-oblong lobes (2 lines long), which be- 

 come lanceolate-linear, longer, and acute: seeds globose-ovoid. DC. 1. c. 98. Texas, 

 common on rocks and hills. 



E. floribunda, Benth. Almost a foot high, corymbose-cymose at summit, rather strict 

 and closely flowered : leaves oblong or the upper lanceolate : flowers short-pedicelled or in 

 the forks nearly sessile : lobes of the light rose-colored corolla oblong and becoming lan- 

 ceolate, at most 2 lines long and 3 or 4 times shorter than the tube : anthers short-oblong 

 (shorter than in any other of this section and the stigmas smaller) : seeds globular-ovoid. 

 PI. Hartw. 322; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 480. California, on the Sacramento and its tribu- 

 taries, JTarticcr/, &c. 



E. Muhlenbergii, Griseb. A span or less high, at length fastigiately branched from 

 the base, cymosely flowered at summit : leaves oblong, obtuse ; the floral lanceolate : ped- 



