CICENDIA. 



Annual. Stems herbaceous, 4-sided, glabrous, the angles slightly 

 winged : branches few, opposite, diffuse. Leaves opposite, decussate, 

 linear-lanceolate, tapering at the base, and embracing the stem with the 

 short petioles, smooth, 3-nerved, much paler below. Flowers 6 or 8 

 together, in axillary whorls, sessile, white, each furnished with a linear 

 spathulate bractea. Calyx 5-cleft, divisions acute, margined, reflexed 

 at the point, permanent, and closely embracing the base of the mature 

 capsule. Corolla tubular, 5-cleft ; divisions obtuse, spreading, oblique 

 at the base. After withering, the corolla remains closely investing the 

 capsule until it bursts. Stamens 5 ; filaments attached to the middle 

 of the tube, and furnished at the base with a small projection which 

 rests on the stigma, and closes the tube. Anthers linear-oblong, erect, 

 subsagittate, 2-celled. Ovary superior ; style short ; stigma capitate. 

 Capsule 2-valved, 1-celled, the margins inflexed, and bearing the nume- 

 rous, small, round, brownish seeds. W. and A. — The whole plant is 

 somewhat bitter, though much less so than many of its natural allies. 

 Like them it is employed by the natives of India as a stomachic, and is 

 administered in decoction or powder. Thus used it is also said to act 

 as a laxative. Wight. 



ERYTHRjEA. 



Calyx 5-parted, equal. Corolla hypocrateriform with a cylin- 

 drical tube, withering over the capsule. Stamens 5 ; anthers be- 

 coming spiral. Stigmas bilamellate. Capsule 1-celled or half 

 2-celled. 



1099. E. Centaurium Pers. syn. i. 283. Smith Eng. Fl. i. 320. 

 — Chironia Centaurium Eng. Bot. t. 417- Woodv. t. 157. 

 Gentiana Centaurium Linn. sp. 332. — Dry gravelly pastures in 

 Europe. 



Root small, tapering. Stem about a foot high, leafy, sometimes 

 branched at the upper part, and, when very luxuriant, from the base 

 also. Radical leaves obovate, numerous, depressed ; the rest acute, 

 ovate, or elliptic-lanceolate ; all 3-ribbed, bright green. Flowers nearly 

 sessile, from the forks and terminations of a corymbose, more or less 

 dense, repeatedly subdivided, leafy or bracteated, panicle. Bracteas 

 opposite, awl-shaped. Calyx slender, partly membranous, sometimes 

 more than half as long as the pale greenish tube of the corolla, whose 

 limb is of a most exquisite and brilliant pink, rarely white ; expanded 

 only in sunshine, and closing as soon as gathered. Anthers yellow, 

 spiral, with 3 convolutions, after bursting. Style rather oblique, if not 

 curved or deflexed. Capsule slender, brown, invested closely with the 

 permanent dilated tube of the corolla. Smith. — This wild plant possesses 

 all the essential properties of the gentian of the shops, and although not 

 used professionally is a very valuable native medicine. In the places 

 where it grows it is carefully collected for use in rustic pharmacy. 



CHLORA. 



Sepals 8. Corolla rotate, with 6-8 segments withering round 

 the capsule. Stigma bilamellate. Anthers not altering. Capsule 

 1-celled, with spongy placentae. Seeds angular. 



1100. C. perfoliata Linn. syst. nat. ed. 12. ii. 267. Eng. Bot. 



521 



