GENTIANACEAE 83 



Rocky soil, 4000 to 5000 feet : Providence Mts., eastern Mohave Desert. East 

 to Colorado and Texas, sontli to Mexico. May. 



Locs. — Mitchells Caverns, Providence Mts., Jepson 18,169. A form (var. laevis Steyerm.) 

 with shorter and broader (or ovatish) leaves and acute corolla-lobes is found in the New York 

 Mts. (Barnwell, K. Brandegee) and east to Texas. 



Refs. — Menodoba scabra Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 2, 14:44 (1852), type from N. Mex., 

 Wlslizevu3, Fendler fi03, Wright 563; Jepson, Man. 761 (1925). Var. laevis Steyerm., Ann. Mo. 

 Bot.Gard. 19:137 (1932). M. iaew Woot. & Sta., Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. 16:158 (1913), type 

 loc. Organ Mts., N. Mex., Vasey. 



GENTIANACEAE. Gentian Family 



Glabrous herbs with a colorless bitter juice. Leaves simple and entire, the caul- 

 ine opposite and sessile, the basal or lower sometimes drawn down to a petiole or 

 petiole-like base, in Menyanthes the leaves all basal and 3-foliolate. Flowers per- 

 fect, regular. Calj^ persistent, 4 or 5-toothed or -parted. Corolla 4 or 5-lobed or 

 -parted, usually withering-persistent, its lobes commonly convolute in the bud. 

 Stamens inserted on the tube or throat of the corolla, as many as its lobes. Ovary 

 superior, 1-celled, with 2 parietal placentae; style 1 or none; stigmas 2. Fruit a 

 2-valved septicidal capsule, the incurved edges of the valves bearing the seeds. 

 Embryo minute, terete, in copious endosperm. — Eustoma is rarely 6-merous. A few 

 Swertias are puberulent and several have whorled leaves.- — (jenera 64, species 

 about 750, all continents and all climates. 



Bibliog. — Grisebach, A. H. E., Genera et species Gentianarum, 1-364 (1839). Huxley, T. H., 

 The Gentians: notes and queries (Jour. Linn. Soc. 24:101-124, pi. 2, — -1887). Engelmann, Geo., 

 Papers on Gentianeae (Collected Works, 478^87, — 1887). Greene, E. L., N. Am. species of 

 Amarella (Lflts. 1:53-56,-1904) ; Genus Pneumonanthe (1. c. 68-71). Femald, M. L., Forms 

 of Am. Gentians (Rhod. 19:149-152, — 1917). Card, H. H., A revision of the genus Frasera 

 (Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 18:245-282, — 1931). Lindsey, A. A., Anatomical evidence for the Menyan- 

 thaceae (Am. Jour. Bot. 25:485, figs. 1-21,-1938). 

 Leaves simple, entire, sessile except some basal ones. 

 Corolla without glands. 



Corolla salverf orm ; annuals. 



Flowers yellow; anthers unchanged after anthesis 1. Microcala. 



Flowers red or pink; anthers twisting spirally after shedding pollen 



2. Centaurtum, 

 Corolla campanulate to funnelform, blue or white. 



Style filiform; stamens inserted on the corolla-throat 3. Eustoma. 



Style stout, short or none; stamens inserted on the corolla-tube 4. Gentiana. 



Corolla-lobes with conspicuous fringed glands 5. Swertia. 



Leaves 3-foliolate; coroUa-lobes bearded with white filaments 6. Menyanthes. 



1. MICROCALA Hoffmgg. & Link 



Almost minute annual. Stem simple, or with peduncle-like branches terminat- 

 ing in a 4-merous yellow flower. Calyx 4-toothed. Corolla short-salverform, the 

 4 short stamens inserted on its throat. Anthers cordate-ovate. Stigma of 2 fan- 

 shaped lobes which at length separate. — Species 2, North and South America, Eu- 

 rope and Asia. (Greek mikros, small, and kalos, beautiful.) 



1. M. quadrangularis Griseb. Tim-wobt. Stem commonly 1 to 2 inches high, 

 with 1 to 3 pairs of oval or oblong leaves below, these 11/2 to 3 lines long; peduncle 

 naked, quadrangular; calyx short, strongly quadrangular, and seeming as if trun- 

 cate at base and apex, especially in fruit, when it is 2 to 2^2 lines long; corolla deep 

 yellow, the lower half membranous, twice as long as the calyx, open under a sunny 

 sky, closing in afternoon. 



Moist fiats in the neighborhood of low hills or in open woods, 10 to 1000 feet : 

 west side of the upper Sacramento Valley in Sha,sta and Tehama Cos. ; Humboldt 

 Co. to Alameda and Santa Cruz Cos. (mostly in the outer Coast Range) ; Sierra 

 Nevada foothills and their near plains bordei-s from Calaveras Co. to Merced Co. 

 South America. Mar.-May. 



