Blue to Purple Flowers 275 



ments of the ternate and pinnate leaves are finely cut, and 

 the small brownish-purple flowers grow in round umbels 

 three to four inches in diameter, usually without an involu- 

 cre. The lateral wings of the fruit are broad, very thick 

 and corky, and the seeds are flat, the seed-face being con- 

 cave. The oil-tubes are obsolete. 



MACOUN'S GENTIAN 



Gentiana Macounii. Gentian Family 



Stems: slender, simple. Leaves: linear. Flowers: solitary at the 

 ends of elongated erect peduncles ; calyx-lobes lanceolate, acuminate, 

 their mid-ribs decurrent on the tube; corolla narrowly-campanulate, its 

 lobes spatulate-oblong, fringed on both sides, and almost toothed around 

 the apex. 



A lovely deep blue Gentian, found in moist places, but not 

 very common. When the days begin to shorten and the 

 earth is flooded with the final glory of those scarlets and 

 yellows that precede and presage decay, then like a beautiful 

 benediction the Gentians, " coloured with Heaven's own 

 blue," are spread abroad, opening their petals to the sun- 

 shine at midday and closing them again suddenly at the 

 first touch of the chill winds that blow off the ice-fields. 



In the early fall of the year, 



" Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through its fringes to the sky, 

 Blue, blue, as if that sky let fall 

 A flower from its cerulean wall." 



There lies at all times a curious silvery tinge upon the 

 exterior of the four large fringed lobes of the corolla, which 

 are delicately and darkly veined. The two outer calyx- 

 lobes are longer and narrower than the two inner ones, and 

 the buds are very long and pointed. Whenever you try to 



