586 PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
solitary, terminal flower (Gentiana verna, G. acaulis, etc.). Flowers 
regular, perfect, pentamerous or tetramerous, sepals five to four, 
green, more or less synsepalous, not infrequently everted or 
reflexed, corolla of five, rarely four petals, more or less 
Nit 
Uy 
ie 
Fic. 443.—The yellow gentian or bitter root, Gentiana lutea, 
—Flowering h 
dissected flower. (Sayre.) oe aed 
synpetalous, in shape passing from open-stellate, as in Gentiana 
lutea, through many stages of connation to long-tubed, as in 
Gentiana acaulis; stamens five, epipetalous; pistil bicarpellate; 
ovary one-celled or incompletely two-celled; style more or ‘ss 
elongated with bilobed to divided stigma. Fruit a ca 
: ans sule. 
Seeds albuminous. Plants contain bitter glucosides, 5 
