385 



Varleiiea. — A variable species as to the form of the leaves, the 

 length of the calyx and the shape of its lobes ; also in the number of 

 parts in the flowers, which are either quatemary or quinary ; in its mode 

 of branching, and in the inflorescence, which varies from panicled to 

 1 -flowered and sub-axillary ; also in the colour of the corolla, which 

 varies to white. The stem occasionally sends off" from its base single- 

 flowered partially decumbent shoots, (Scotland). It is also sometimes 

 somewhat naked, and nodding at the apex, with leaves scarcely half 

 an inch long, rather obtuse and narrow, with few-flowered axillary 

 cymes, rigidly spreading, (stony places in the region of Baikal). — 

 There are scarcely any limits between the other varieties ; &. however 

 is more constant. 



Observations. — The following remarks will give some idea of the 

 history of this species, the synonymy of which Reichenbach was the 

 first to clear up satisfactorily. Gentiana Amarella is much more fre- 

 quent in Sweden than G. germanica, if indeed the latter occur there 

 at all, which I very much doubt, since Linnaeus was either altogether 

 unacquainted with it, or else did not distinguish it from the former, 

 which is met with everywhere in that country. Ehrhart also collected 

 G. Amarella with Linnaeus j and on his return to Hanover, when he 

 first saw G. germanica, he named it G. critica. This name, according 

 to the rule of priority, would have been substituted for Willdenow's, 

 had not Ehrhart's specimens presented a more rare and smaller form, 

 but still having the stipitate ovary. Ehrhart's specimens are identi- 

 cal ! with Smith's figure in ' English Botany,' 2-36, which, by mistake, 

 is given as the G. Amarella of the Linna3an herbarium, and unnatu- 

 rally represented with a sessile ovary ; * it is, however, G. germanica. 

 Dickson, more accurate in this respect, proved the G. pratensis of 

 Froelich to stand in the Linnasan herbarium as G. Amarella; and 

 Smith himself, having subsequently become sensible of his error, in 

 his letter to Panzer written in 1822 (Flora, 1830, p. 529), says that 

 G. germanica is distinct from the G. Amarella of Linnajus.f Sir W. 



* Grisebacli appears to be in error here. A very evident though short stalk is re- 

 presented at the base of the separate ovary in the ' English Botany' figure. 



f Sir J. E. Smith, in the second volume of his ' English Flora,' published in 1828, 

 six years after the date of the letter above mentioned, has the following observations 

 under Gentiana Amarella. " G. germanica, Willd. v. 1. 1346, which is G. critica of 

 Ehrhart, Herb. 152, and, according to Swiss specimens, Haller's n. 651 (though the 

 latter indicates many wrong synonyms, and takes it for an English plant), differs from 

 Amarella in having ^ozrers nearly twice as large, situated about the upper part of the 

 stem^ which is of a corymbose form of growth. It may be a good species, but has not 

 yet been observed in England." — p. 31. 



2k 



