GENTIANA. 
G. acaulis, is nearly always finely in bloom at Christmas and throughout 
the earlier part of the winter. All the species in the following list 
(which ought to prove helpful up to date for the best), are perennials, 
with a very few stated exceptions. And see Appendix. 
G. acaulis, L—This august name has at last burst asunder 
with the number of definite species that it has been called upon to 
contain. No one who has ever met Gentians on the Alps can have 
failed to see that the name “acaulis’’ was made to cover so much 
that it ultimately came to mean nothing at all. And, as for the 
Gentiana « acaulis”’ of gardens, this, it is clear, has nothing to do with 
any form of any species at present known on any of the hills of the world. 
Therefore the old name of Gentiana acaulis had better be now finally 
dropped ; for the garden plant we have a common name, which, though 
absurd, has the advantage of being euphonious, so that it may stand 
distinct as Gentiana Gentianella, to keep its position plain and definite ; 
G. excisa, Presl., shall still hold its own, though placed in this group ; 
but Gentiana acaulis of Linneus is a dead name, concealing five 
definite species, which, however, with their cousins, shall here be 
treated together under the heading of G. acaulis, in order that their 
relationship and distinctions may be kept clear. They are usually 
inferior in flamboyancy of beauty to G. Gentianella, but are most 
lovely and interesting alpines, growing with perfect readiness in con- 
ditions much less elaborate than those indicated for the smaller 
species. 
G. ACAULIS, L., with all it connotes and has ever included :— 
G. alpina has a limited distribution, and is rare in that, being 
only found at great elevations, first of all in the far South of Spain, on 
the Sierra Nevada, then along the Pyrenees into the Graian, Cottian, 
and Maritime Alps, and on into the south-western fringe of Switzerland. 
It is remarkably distinct, much smaller than the others, and so minutely 
dwarf as to be actually stemless. The leaves are like those of G. 
latifolia, but very little and very broad, and, though not pointed, more 
rhomboidal and less round. In colour they are like those of G. lati- 
folia, greyish green. Then, straight upon the rosette of these, staring 
stemless up to the day, appear fine and perfectly straight-sided 
trumpets of pure blue, more or less flecked inside with emerald, the 
calyx-lobes being full and swelling and tapering like the outlines of a 
dome from the Brighton Pavilion, but bluntish instead of running to a 
point. This tight dwarf Gentian is no stunted form, but a true species, 
remaining constant under cultivation ; in nature it is supposed to prefer 
non-calcareous conditions. 
G. angustifolia, again, has a smallish range. It occupies the 
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