953 



GENET. 



GENTIANA. 



951 



more closely the regular societies of bees and ants, and witness the 

 labour required for the nourishment of the young. But, on the other 

 hand, how the development of the species is promoted by the multi- 

 tude of ' nursing ' animals of which we often see thousands for each 

 single fertile one, appears to us difficult of explantion, since, even all 

 of them can only be regarded as animated organs, which do not appear 

 to act for or with each other. It does not however seem to me impro- 

 bable that even the Aphides, trematoda nurses, and other parasites, 

 which are so immediately injurious to the organisms in or upon which 

 they live, are not destined merely to promote the extension of the 

 species, but that they also induce in the organisms themselves condi- 

 tions necessarily more and more favourable to a later generation ; 

 plants also and animals afford us many instances that to a certain 

 abundance of parasites there usually succeeds a complete overflow of 

 thorn. 



" I conclude with the remark that, inasmuch as in the system of 

 ' nursing' the whole advancement of the welfare of the young is effected 

 only by a still and peaceful organic activity, is only a function of the 

 vegetative life of the individual, so also all those forms o animals in 

 whose development the 'nursing' system obtains, actually remind us 

 of the propagation and vital cycle of plants. For it is peculiar to 

 plants, and, as it were, their special characteristic, that the germ, the 

 primordial individual in the vegetation or seed, is competent to pro- 

 duce individuals which are again capable of producing seeds or indi- 

 viduals of the primary form or that to which the plant owed its 

 origin, only by the intervention of a whole series of generations. It 

 is certainly the great triumph of Morphology, that it is able to show 

 how the plant or tree (that colony of individuals arranged in accord- 

 ance with a simple vegetative principle or fundamental law) unfolds 

 itself, through a frequently long succession of generations, into indi- 

 viduals, becoming constantly more and more perfect, until, after the 

 immediately precedent generation, it appears as calyx and corolla, 

 with perfect male and female individuals, stamens, and pistils (so that 

 even in the vegetable kingdom the grosser hermaphroditism does not 

 obtain, which is still supposed to take place in the animal); and after, 

 the fructification brings forth seed, which again goes through the same 

 course. It is this great and significant resemblance to the vegetable 

 kingdom, which in my opinion is presented by the Entozoa and all 

 'nurse' generations, and to which I have alluded in the preceding 

 Essay : I might almost say that the condition of continued dependence 

 incidental to the animal life, is to a certain extent one of less perfec- 

 tion than that which is presented in the progressive elevation in 

 development effected by the agency of the vegetative life." 



GENET. [ViVEBBHWE.] 



GENISTA (the Latin Genista), a genus of Plants belonging to the 

 natural order Ltguminowe. The calyx is 2-lipped ; the upper lip 

 bifid, the lower trifid. It has a subulate ascending style ; a terminal 

 oblique introrse stigma. The species have yellow flowers, and most 

 of tht-m yield a yellow dye. The Planta Genista, or Whin, the Gen of 

 the Celts, and the Genet of the French, was the badge of a long race 

 of English kings, hence called Plantagenets. Upwards of eighty species 

 are included in this genus, but few are applied to any important uses. 

 They are found principally in the south of Europe, and some few are 

 natives of Great Britain. 



0. pitota, has a smooth procumbent stem, and obovate lanceolate 

 obtuse leaves ; ovate blunt stipules. The peduncles, calyx, and 

 underside of the leaf are silky, and the pods hairy. It is a native of 

 the south of France, and is also found in Suffolk and Cornwall in 

 England, in sandy places. 



G. tinctoria, Dyer's- Weed, or Woad, has a depresssed stem, with 

 erect branches, without thorns ; lanceolate leaves, hairy at the edges ; 

 minute subulate stipules ; racemose flowers ; and glabrous corolla and 

 pods. The branches are from one to two feet high, glabrous and 

 downy above. This plant is a native of Europe, and is found in 

 pastures, fields, and thickets in England. The flowers yield a yellow 

 colour, which is much used for dying wool. When cows are allowed 

 to feed on this plant their milk becomes bitter and disagreeable, and 

 the unpleasant taste of cheese and butter is often attributable to 

 this cause. 0. tinctoria has also a medicinal reputation. The seeds 

 act as a mild purgative, and the ashes are also said to be a valuable 

 diurectic. 



G. anylica, Needle-Whin, has a spinous ascending stem, leafless 

 below ; unarmed glabrous flowing branches ; ovate-lanceolate leaves ; 

 and glabrous stems and' corolla. It is a native of Europe, in 

 France and Denmark, and is found in Britain on moist boggy 

 commons. 



G. acanthoclada has trifoliate leaves, nearly sessile ; linear, compli- 

 cated, silky leaflets ; stiff and spinose branches. The flowers almost 

 opposite, and disposed along the branches in a kind of interrupted 

 pike. It is a native of the Levant in exposed places, and in the 

 inland of Melon. This plant appears to be the Me'Aaira fiifa of 

 Hippocrates, 2of>iri'oi of Theophrastus, and the 'AmriiAafloj of 

 Dioscorides. 



Q. Hiijxmir.a has lanceolate villous leaves ; branched stiff spines ; 

 terminal racemes, somewhat capitate. It is a native of Spain and the 

 south of France. Fraai states that this species is the ' genista ' of 

 Roman writers (Virgil, 'Georg.' ii. 434 ; Pliny, xxvj. 9. 12, 22. 24, <J; 

 Columclla, 4, 3i). 



G. pwgans is an erect branched shrub with very few leaves, and 

 axillary flowers on short pedicels. It is a native of France, on hills, 

 especially in the Cevennes, where it is used by the villagers as a 

 cathartic. 



G. monosperma has erect branches ; very few linear oblong leaves, 

 clothed with a depressed pubescence ; and lateral few-flowered racemes. 

 It is a native of Spain, Portugal, Barbary, and Egypt. On the shores 

 of Spain it is found to be very useful in binding the otherwise drifting 

 sand, and by its beautiful fragrant blossoms it converts a barren waste 

 into a lovely garden. The goats feed on the leaves and young 

 branches, of which they are particularly fond. The Spaniards call 

 both the plant and the districts over which they grow Retamas, from 

 the Arabic word Rsetam. The species of this genus thrive well in 

 a mixture of loam, peat, and sand, and young cuttings will easily 

 strike in a potful of sand with a bell glass over them, which must 

 be taken off and wiped occasionally, lest the cuttings absorb too much 

 moisture. 



(Don, Dichlamydeous Plants; Babiugton, Manual of British Botany ; 

 Fraas, Synopsis Plantarum Florae Classical; Burnett, Outlines of 

 Botany.) 



GENTIANA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Gmtianacea. It has a 4-5-parted calyx. The corolla is variously 

 divided, twisted to the right in aestivation, often with accessory lobes 

 between the principal ones, without depressed glands upon the petals. 

 The filaments equal at the base ; anthers not changing. The stigmas 

 are terminal on the ovary or style. The placentae united with the 

 endocarp and overspreading the valves of the capsule. 



G. Catesbcei is found in wet grassy meadows in the southern parts 

 of the North American Union. It has a branching fleshy root. The 

 stem is simple, erect, and rough. The leaves opposite, ovate, or 

 lanceolate, slightly 3-nerved, acute, rough on the margin. The flowers 

 crowded, nearly sessile, axillary, and terminal. The segments of the 

 calyx linear lanceolate, varying in length, exceeding the tube and 

 sometimes more than twice its length. The corolla is large, blue, 

 veutricose, plaited, its border 10-cleft ; the 5 outer segments roundish 

 and more or less acute, the 5 inner bifid and fimbriate. The stamens 

 are 5 in number, with dilated filaments, and sagittate anthers. The 

 ovary is oblong, lanceolate, compressed, supported by a sort of pedicel. 

 The style is absent, stigmas 2, oblong and reflexed. The capsule 

 oblong, acuminate, 1-celled, and 2-valved.- The dried root is muci- 

 laginous and sweetish, then intensely bitter, approaching to G. lutea. 

 It is said to be the best substitute for that species. 



G. Amanlla has a salver-shaped 4-5-cleft corolla, bearded in the 

 throat ; the calyx-lobes 5, nearly equal, lanceolate ; the leaves sessile, 

 ovate, lanceolate ; the radical leaves obovate. It is very variable in 

 size and in the number of the flowers. It is from 3 to 12 inches high, 

 erect. The stem square, much branched. The flower is of a pale 

 purple colour, barely an inch long ; the mouth of the tube is crowned 

 by a fine erect purplish fringe rather shorter than the limb, and rising 

 much above the stamens. The stamens answer in number to the 

 divisions of the calyx and corolla, being almost always 5, awl-shaped, 

 with roundish separate anthers. The styles are very short; the 

 stigmas ovate. This species is a British plant, and is one of the 

 substitutes for the true Gentian sold in shops. 



G. campestris is rather paler than the last species and of more 

 humble growth, varying greatly in luxuriance. The stem ia somewhat 

 corymbose, with simple flower-stalks of various lengths. The leaves 

 are ovate, acute, and 3-ribbed. The flowers are somewhat larger than 

 in G. Amarella, 4-cleft, essentially distinguished by having the two 

 outer and opposite segments of the calyx ovate and very broad, 

 covering the two inner, which are narrow and lanceolate, or even awl- 

 shaped, all deeply serrated, and minutely fringed. This species is 

 found in Great Britain and in elevated pastures in many parts of 

 Europe. It is used as a substitute for the officinal Gentian. 



G. purpwrea is native of Swizerland, Savoy, the Pyrenees, and 

 Norway. It has a simple and sub-divided root, many-crowned, taper, 

 thickish, long, yellow outside, white inside, intensely bitter. The 

 stem is obscurely 4-comered, green or greenish-purple, from 1 to 2 feet 

 high. The radical leaves are ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, apiculate ; 

 those in the middle of the stem ovate-lanceolate, scarcely acuminate, 

 the uppermost sessile, broad, lanceolate, uniting and sheathing at the 

 base, all 5-nerved, flexible, and bright shining green. The flowers are 

 terminal and axillary on short stalks. The calyx is oblong, scarious, 

 semi-transparent, slit longitudinally on the inner side. The corolla is 

 large, rather coriaceous, with a few scattered dots arranged in rows in 

 the inside ; the tube yellow and striated, the limb 6-cleft, with broad 

 obtuse segments distant at the base. The seeds are brown, orbicular, 

 and winged. It is employed with the next species in continental 

 practice. 



G. Pannonica has a tapering root, little branched, many-crowned, 

 rugose, as much as 2 feet long, thick, yellowish-brown outside, 

 whitish inside. The stem is round, green, or purplish, from 1 to 2 

 feet high. The leaves are ovate, somewhat apiculate, 5-uerved, the 

 petioles running down into a sheath, those on the middle of the stem 

 ovate-lanceolate, long ; those at the top acuminate, about 3-nerved ; 

 all somewhat coriaceous and bright green. The flowers are sessile, or 

 on very short stalks (the upper whorl many-flowered), large, an inch 

 uud a half long. The calyx is campauulate, obso^ctely 5-Oornertd, 



