216 



superior 1- or 2-celled ovarium, an imbricated withering corolla, indefinite 

 seeds, capsular fruit, and opposite exstipulate entire leaves. . 

 Anomalies. Menyanthes and Villarsia have alternate leaves. 



Essential Characteh Calyx monophyllons, divided, inferior, persistent. Co- 

 rolla monopetalous, hypogynous, usually regular, withering or deciduous ; the limb divided, 

 equal, its lobes of the same number as those of the calyx, generally 5, sometimes 4, 6, 8, or 

 10, with an imbricated twisted sestivation. Stamens inserted upon theroroUa, all in the same 

 line, eqiial in number to the segments, and alternate with them ; some of them occasionally 

 abortive. Po/Ze/i S-lobed or triple. Ouari?i;n single, 1- or 2-celled, many-seeded. Style \, 

 continuous ; slig/nax 1 or 2. Capsule or berry many-seeded, with 1 or 2 cells, generally 2- 

 valved; the margins of the valves turned inwards, and in the genera with I cell, bearing 

 the seeds ; in the 2-celled genera inserted into a central placenta. Seeds small ; testa single ; 



'rmhryo straight in the axis of soft fleshy albumen ; radicle next the hilum Herbaceous 



plants, seldom shrubs, generally smooth. Leaves opposite, entire, without stipulae, sessile, 

 or having their petioles confluent in a little sheath. Floivers terminal or axillary. 



Affinities. Very near Apocyneae, from which they differ in their 

 herbaceous habit, withering corolla, entire ovarium, imbricated, not con- 

 torted, aestivation, want of milk, and capsular fruit without naked seeds. 

 Mr. Brown remarks, that this order is better known by its habit than by any 

 particular character ; being, on the one hand, allied to Polemoniaceae and 

 Scrophularineae, from the latter of which it is distinguished by its regular 

 flowers, the stamens of which are ecjual to the lobes of the corolla, and from 

 the former by the dehiscence of the capsule and the placentalion of the 

 seeds; and, on the other hand, to certain Apocyneee. From Scrophularineae 

 it is frequently difficult to distinguish this order, especially if the flowers are 

 absent ; Loganieae and Spigeliacese are also very closely allied. For remarks 

 on the three last, see those orders respectively. Von Martius, however, points 

 out some diflferences between Gentianeoe and Scrophularineae, and their 

 allies, which will further assist in distinguishing them. No Gentianeae, ex- 

 cept Tachia, have a hypogynous disk ; and the two carpellary leaves of 

 which the fruit is formed are lateral, or right and left with respect to the 

 common axis of the inflorescence, their placentae being consequently anterior 

 and posterior ; but in Scrophularineae, Gesnerese, Bignoniaceae, Acanthaceae, 

 and their allies, a hypogynous disk is very common in the shape of a fleshy 

 ring, or of glands, or teeth, and the two carpellary leaves are anterior and 

 posterior, the dissepiment being consequently in the same transverse line as 

 separates the upper from the lower lip. 31enyanthes and Villarsia are pro- 

 bably the type of a small order distinguished by their alternate and some- 

 times compound toothed leaves, the characters of which are still to trace. 

 Von Martins excludes them absolutely ; Mr. Brown places them at the end 

 of the order, along with Anopterus, which seems "to be distinct both from 

 GenlianecE and Menyanthes: it will be seen, further on, that their properties 

 are absolutely the same as those of Gentianesp. 



Geooraiiiy. a numerous order of herbaceous plants, extending over 

 almost all parts of the world, from the regions of perpetual snow upon the 

 summits of the mountains of Europe, to the hottest sands of South America 

 and India. They, however, do not appear in the Flora of Melville Island ; 

 but they form part of that of the Straits of Magellan. 



Piioi'KRTiES. The intense bitterness of the Gentian is a characteristic 

 of the whole order; it resides both in their stems and roots, and renders 

 them tonic, stomachic, and febrifugal; and it is very remarkable that there 

 are no exceptions to these properties in the whole order, as it is now limited. 

 The principal enumerated by Decandolh; are, Gentiona lutea, employed in 

 France and England ; G. rubra, substituted for it in Germany; G. purpurea 

 in Norway ; G. amarella, campestris, cruciata, Chlora perfoliata, G. peruviana, 

 called Cachen in Peru, G. Chirita, the famous stomachio of the East Indies, 



