262 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxii 



not the true G. ornata} Hutchinson - suggests that it is 

 near G. nipponica, Maxim. 



C. B. Clarke ^ brought into Wallich's species the " abun- 

 dant material " of Sikkim specimens collected by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker and others, and cites the erroneous iigure of the 

 Botanical Magazine, t. 6514. I have not had opportunity 

 to examine the specimens dealt with by Clarke, but I note 

 an important phrase in his description : " Radical leaves 

 or inconspicuous at flowering time." Now that does not 

 apply to Wallich's Gossain Than plants. Our specim.ens 

 show a conspicuous leafy rosette with long leaves in the 

 flowering plant. On the other hand, the description does 

 fit Sikkim plants (and I may add Bhutan ones), of which 

 we have specimens. In them a leafy " radical " rosette is 

 apparently not formed. Of this I shall write something 

 later. Here I will only say that I suspect some — shall I 

 say much ? — of the Sikkim material is not G. ornata, Wall. 

 Of the var. meiantha which Clarke regards as a " very 

 dubious plant," I can say nothing. 



In the same year (1883) as the Gentianaceae of Hooker's 

 Fl. of Brit. Ind. appeared, there was published over the 

 name G- ornata in the Gardeners' Chronicle * a figure of 

 a plant grown by Mr. Wilson at Wisley — probably from 

 Calcutta seed. The plant is not G. ornata, Wall. The 

 tuft of short ascending potential stolons in the centre of 

 the far-spreading flowering stolons is not a character of 

 G. ornata, but is found in another species of Gentian which 

 extends from Sikkim into Bhutan. I shall describe pres- 

 ently this species under the name G. prolata. The con- 

 struction to which I call attention is of biological import. 

 It means that the stolons are biennial. The dried specimens 

 of Wallich's Nepal G. ornata show annual stolons. I am 

 disposed to interpret the figure as a representation of G. 

 prolata. It cannot be G. ornata, Wall. 



In 1896 the first Chinese plants to be identified with 

 G. ornata, Wall, were described by Franchet.^ On p. 255 



' Later pointed out in Gard. Cliron., '.), \\ (1900), 182, and again 3, 

 xlvi (1009), 178. 



2 Hutchiusori in l'>ot. Mag. (1907), t. 8140. 



3 Clarke in Hook., Fl. Brit. Ind., iv (1883), 116. 



4 Gard. Chron., 3, ii (1883), 396, fig. 60. 



^ Franchet in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xliii (1896), 493. 



