383 



lialf the length of the corolla, segments lanceolate, acute, siibeqiial. Corolla salver- 

 shaped, piirplc-hlue ; tube widening upwards, angular, striated, transversely wrinkled 

 between the striae, contracted and paler at the base ; limb 5-cleft, segments ovate-lan- 

 ceolate, acute, entire, one-third the length of the tube : scales in the mouth of the tube 

 five, membranaceous, white, multifid in a capillary manner at the apex. Stamina : — 

 filaments rather longer than the tube, at the base of which they are inserted ; anthers 

 oblong, free. Pistil : — germen oblong, on a short stalk (breviter pedicellatum), attenu- 

 ated upwards : stigmas ovate. Capsule oblong, longer than the corolla, stalked. Seeds 

 roundish, rather compressed, smooth, brown. — Froelich, 'De Gentiana Libellus,' Er- 

 langa), 179(5. P. 86. 



Then follow the characters and an equally full description of G. 

 pratensis, a native of Russia and Siberia, given by Willdenow as a 

 distinct species, but quoted by Grisebach as synonymous with his G. 

 Amarella, «. The following are its characters. 



34. Gentiana pratensis. Corolla somewhat 5-cleft, salver-shaped, obtuse, throat 

 bearded ; segments of the calyx unequal : leaves lanceolate. 



At the end of his work, Froelich gives the following interesting ac- 

 count of his meeting with another Gentiana Amarella, apparently dis- 

 tinct from the plant so called by himself and other German botanists. 



" After the preceding part was printed, the 1st fasciculus of Dickson's Dried Plants 

 came into my hands; among them is Gentiana Amarella, No. 5, from Derbyshire, 

 in England. The root is like that of Gent. Amarella above describeil, but yellow, {lu- 

 tea). Stem as in that, also purple, but more slender ; ten inches high. Branches be- 

 ginning at the middle of the stem, shorter than the adjoining internodes, as in Gent, 

 pratensis and campestris ; the stem therefore is not pyramidical, as it generally is in 

 our Amarella. Lower leaves spathulato ovate, the next ovate-lanceolate, the upper ones 

 lanceolate, acute, shorter than the internodes. Flowers terminal and axillary, solitary 

 or in pairs, the lower ones seated on the branches, erect, 9 lines long, 2 lines wide, 

 being thus much smaller than in Amarella as above described. Calyx as in that, and 

 about half the length of the tube of the corolla, rather unequal. Corolla likewise si- 

 milar, only narrower, and apparently of a paler blue. Stamina the length of the tube. 

 Germen still more attenuated above. This seems to be a species distinct from our 

 Amarella, and if, as appears from the title of the fasciculus, it is named on the autho- 

 rity of the Linnaean herbarium, it must retain the name of Amarella ; whilst our plant, 

 the Amarella of German botanists, must receive another name. — Id. 141. 



Willdenow, in the following year, published the German Gentiana 

 Amarella in his ' Species Plantarum,' under the name of G. germanica. 



Turning now from Froelich and Willdenow to Grisebach, " the lat- 

 est and best authority on the Gentianese," I must confess that I at first 

 found myself somewhat bewildered among his characters of the " four 

 states of each species," and the nimierous synonymes assigned to each 

 of these states. I think I cannot better illustrate the uncertainty and 



