240 GENTIANE^. 



are, on the S^viss mountains, the companions of some of the Primrose tribes 

 on the very verge of eternal snow. The severest intense cold does not hurt 

 them, and they grow on tropical elevations often at a great height. Until 

 recently, it was thought that they never occurred in these regions at a lower 

 elevation than 7,852 feet ; but Sir Joseph Hooker, in his botanic researches 

 on the Himalayan Mountains, found one, G. arcnaria, at an elevation of only 

 2,000 feet. The whole climate was there thoroughly tropical, but the 

 Gentian grew on mossy rocks cooled by the spring of the river. One species 

 has been found on the Himalaya range at the height of 16,000 feet ; and the 

 G. prostrata occurs in the Rocky Mountains of America, at an equal elevation 

 to this. 



Meyen, the German writer on the Geography of Plants, remarks, " It is 

 an inexpressible pleasure which only a botanist can feel, when, coming from 

 the North, he ascends a high mountain in a southern region, and finds one 

 well-known jilant after another. Even in the Swiss mountains his pleasure 

 is great ; but how much greater is it when far from home he is wandering 

 on the mountains of the southern hemisphere ! The sight of a little Gentian, 

 very similar to our G. uUginosa and G. nivalis, at a height of 14,000 or 15,000 

 feet, as in the Cordilleras of Southern Peru, can enchain a botanist for hours ; 

 he again and again gathers this little plant, which takes him, at least in 

 imagination, home." 



3. Small Alpine Gentian {G. nivalis). — Leaves egg-shaped, lowermost 

 broadly elliptical ; branches single-flowered ; corolla salver-shaped, 5-cleft, 

 with intermediate smaller segments ; calyx cylindrical, with five keeled 

 angles ; annual. This is an exceedingly rare and beautiful little Gentian, 

 having an erect stem, slightly branched, and from two to six inches high. 

 It grows on the summits of Highland mountains, l^earing in August flowers 

 of a most brilliant blue colour. 



4. Small-flowered Gentian, or Fel^A;■ort [G. amarilla). — Stem erect, 

 bi^anched, many-flowered ; calyx 5-cleft ; corolla salver-shaped, 5-cleft, fringed 

 in the throat ; annual. This species grows on dry limestone hills, but it is 

 not frequent. It is a formal-looking plant, remarkably erect, with a square 

 leafy stem, often tinged with purple, very variable in size, being from three 

 to twelve inches high. The flowers are rather large, of a purplish colour, 

 expanding only in bright sunshine, and appearing in August and September, 



The Felwort appears to have been highly prized, for we find Gower 



saying— 



' ' Though toke she Feldwodde and verveyne, 

 Of herbes ben not better tweyne." 



5. Field Gentian [G. camp6stris). — Stem erect, branched, many-flowered; 

 calyx 4-cleft, the 2 outer lobes much larger than the others ; corolla salver- 

 shaped, 4-cleft, fringed in the throat ; annual. This plant is very similar to 

 the last, but distinguished from it by its larger 4-cleft flowers, which often 

 cluster in great numbers at the upper part of the stem from August to 

 October. The plant is very common on hilly pastures, especially in Scotland ; 

 and on limestone hills, near the sea, its pale lilac blossoms often stand up 

 above the short grasses. It contains in every part of it some of the tonic, 



