GENTIANACEiE. 73 



sinus, generally without glands ; throat often closed with hairs. 

 Stamens 4 or 5, inserted in the tube of the corolla ; filaments not 

 dilated at the base ; anthers not twisting spirally after the pollen 

 is shed. Style absent, or undistinguishable from the attenuated 

 point of the ovary ; stigma bifid, persistent. Capsule fusiform- 

 cylindrical, 1-celled, septicidally dehiscing by 2 valves, with the 

 placentas parietal and sutural. Seeds numerous, minute. 



Annuals or perennials of various habits. Elowers commonly 

 blue or purple, opening in sunshine. 



This genus of plants was named after Gentius, a king of Illyria, who is said first 

 to have discovered its medical virtues. 



SPECIES L-GE NT I AN A PNEUMON ANTHE. Linn. 



Plate DCCCCXIY. 



Reich Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MLI. Fig. 2. 

 Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2313. 



E/Oot-fibres thickened, fasciculate. Rootstock very slightly 

 branched, not creeping, with scale-like leaves. Flowering-stem 

 elongated, simple or nearly so. Radical leaves none ; stem-leaves 

 strapshaped or linear-strapshaped, very slightly connate at the 

 base; all obtuse, with reflexed margins, 1-nerved or indistinctly 

 3-nerved. Elowers solitary, or more rarely 2 together, terminal 

 and axillary, stalked, with 2 linear bracts a little way below the 

 base of the calyx, arranged in a raceme which is sometimes 

 reduced to a single terminal flower. Calyx-limb obconical ; seg- 

 ments 5, linear, about as long as the tube or a little shorter. 

 Corolla-tube more than twice as long as the calyx ; tube broadly 

 obconical, without hairs in the throat ; limb of 5 oval-acute seg- 

 ments, about one-fourth the length of the tube, not ciliated. 

 Capsule longly stipitate. 



On moist boggy heaths. Local. It occurs in Dorset, Hants, 

 Sussex, Surrey, Suffolk, Norfolk, Carmarthen, Anglesea, Lincoln, 

 Notts, Derby, Chester, Lancashire, York, Westmoreland, and 

 Cumberland. 



England. Perennial. Autumn. 



^iD-" 



Stems generally with a more or less decumbent base, then erect, 

 3 to 18 inches high. Leaves 1 to 2 inches long. Elowers 1^ to 

 2 inches long, rather pale-blue externally, with 5 paler stripes, dark 

 vivid-blue within, variegated with white in the throat ; segments 



VOL. VI. L 



