216 THE GENTIAN FAMILY. 



HABITATS AND LOCALITIES. 

 1. Bog-bean — [Menydnthes trifoliata.) 

 Boggy ground, swamps, and by pondsides, where the water and the 

 grass maintain perpetual and doubtful strife. Chorlton ; Withington ; 

 Bowdon ; Rostherne ; Mobberley. Plentiful on Hale Moss, and in 

 ponds by the road between Manchester and Hyde, flowering freely, 

 and generally so, where not too luxuriant. Plentiful in Middle 

 Hulton, Bedford, Shakerley, and on Chat Moss, with profusion of 

 bloom every season. (R. H. ; J. E.) Fl. June, July. 

 Curtis, ii. 234 ; E. B. vi. 495 ; Baxter, iv. 245. 

 The Menyanthes is one of the most beautiful plants this country can boast, 

 and justly deserves its title of the hyacinth of the marshes. The delicate rose- 

 hue of the flowers, and the curious shaggy beards upon their petals, at once 

 distinguish it from every other. Like aU our other large aquatics and vegetable 

 amphibia, it does not seem so much an English plant as one of tropical countries. 

 Our land-plants without exception have a domestic look about them, but the 

 water-lovers shine with a foreign-looking glory that makes them seem emigrants 

 from the lands of humming-birds and palm-trees. The root is intensely bitter, 

 and reputed one of the most valuable of known tonics. 



2. Blush WORT — {Erythrcea Qentaurium.) 

 Dry pastures, especially on hill-sides, but rather uncommon, and 

 the quantity diminished every year, being ravenously plucked up by 

 the herb-gatherers while in bloom, whereby seeding and progeny are 

 prevented. In the neighbourhood of Lymm, especially in the herby 

 pastures above the upper end of the water ; in fields about Rostherne 

 Mere, Bramhall, and Mobberley, pretty plentiful ; and abundant on 

 the hill-sides above Strines. Fl. July — September. Annual. 



Curtis, ii. 239; E. B. vi. 417 (both as Chironia Centaurium) ; Baxter, v. 367. 



In great repute as a bitter, and sold in the market under the name of 

 " Sanctuary," which word appears to be a corruption of " Centaury," the name, pro- 

 perly, of a genus of the Composite Family. The rosy, jessamine-like, and lemon- 

 scented flowers expand only in sunshine, and are seldom seen open after noon. 

 The lovely hue of the petals, the spirally-twisted yellow stamens, and the elegantly 

 wayward corymb, render this plant one of the prettiest in English botany. 



3. Chlora — {Ohlora perfolidta.) 

 Dry fields and waysides, rare. On a steep bank near Castle Mill, 

 Cotterill, fine and abundant. In an old cow-lane at the lower end of 

 Cotterill. Alderley, in a pasture under the Edge, and about Mob- 

 berley. (Mr. Holland.) In fields near Rostherne Mere, with tho 



