to the anal: 
GENTIANA LUTEA. 
spear-shaped, stiff, and having five large veins on the back, 
plaited and of a yellowish-green color; those of the stem are 
concave, smooth and egg- shaped, sessile, and almost embra- 
cing the stem, which rises three or four feet in height. The 
flowers are in whorls at the upper joints, large, yellow, pe- 
duncled, and beautiful. The calyx, which is a membranous, 
deciduous spathe, bursts on the side when the flower opens. 
The corolla is rotated, divided into five or eight narrow 
spreading segments, elliptical, and speckled with many thick 
dots. The filaments are shorter than the corolla, and furnished 
with long, erect anthers. The germen is conical, crowned 
with two sessile, reflected stigmas, and becomes a conical 
capsule, which contains numerous small seeds. 
The plant is very handsome, and often cultivated both for 
ornament and for the sake of its powerfully tonic virtues. 
Most of the species succeed well in a light, rich soil, but a few 
require peat, and some must be grown in pots to be protected 
by frames in winter. Some of them may be increased by di- 
viding at the root, but most of them seed freely. The seeds 
should be sown as soon as ripe; they will then quickly vege- 
tate; but if left till spring before they are sown, they will not 
come up till the second year. (Bot. Cult. 371.) 
Gentian roots are imported from Germany; they are in 
pieces of various dimensions and shape, usually of considera- 
ble length, consisting sometimes of longitudinal slices, some- 
times of the root cut transversely, twisted, wrinkled externally, | 
sometimes marked with close transverse rings of a grayish-— 
brown color on the outside, yellowish or reddish wi and. 
of a soft spongy texture. 
CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES AND USES. ~ 
Gentian roots have no particular odor, and the taste is in- | 
tensely bitter without being nauseous. When cut transverse-_ 
ly, the pieces exhibit a yellow maculated heart, with thick 
bark verging to brown. The sensible qualities of Gentian’ 
root are extracted _by ether, alcohol, and water. The two | - 
former extract a resin and a bitter extractive matter, and the 
latter some part of these and a considerable quantity of mu- é : 
cilage also, which occasions the infusion often to become ropy. 
Diluted alcohol is its proper menstruum. In the bitter . 
tractive the virtues of the plant seem to reside. Ac 
sis of M. M. Henry, sen., and Caventon, G 
= contains a = — te i a ye 
