GKNTIANA. 



bout 6-cleft, varied with red and green ; the segment* almost leafy 

 and unequal, divided by a wide sinus, sometimes lemilated, shorter 

 than the tube. The corolla is coriaceous, membranous, purple, with 

 a yellowish tube, marked all over into rows of deeper spots, the seg- 

 ments ovate, rather blunt, thrice as short as the tube. The seeds are 

 brown, winged, and round. The roots are extremely bitter, and are 

 used extensively in Bavaria and Austria in medicine. 



'>. A'urroo is found in various parts of the Himalayas. It has a 

 rtem about I-flowered, obtuse leaves, the radical long, lanceolate, 

 those on the stems linear. The teeth of the calyx are long and 

 subulate. The corolla is funnel-shaped, with an intense blue 

 spreading 10-lobed limb, the principal lobes of which are ovate and 

 acute, the intermediate ones scale-like teeth. The root is used like 

 Gentian in the north of Italy. 



G. lulea, the Common Gentian, is found in alpine meadows through- 

 out the middle of Europe. It has a cylindrical root, wrinkled, ringed, 

 thick, forked, brown externally, yellow within. The stem is 8 or 4 

 feet high, hollow, and stout. The radical leaves are ovate-oblong, 

 5-nerved, 2 or 8 inches broad, those on the stem sessile, ovate, acute ; 

 those next the flowers cordate, amplexicaul, concave, all a pale bright 

 green. The flowers are bright yellow, in many-flowered whorls, 

 stalked. The calyx is of a papery texture, and semi-transparent, 3- or 

 4-cleft, with short lanceolate unequal segment*. The corolla with a 

 very short tube, and 5 or 6 preen glands at the base, 5- or 6-parted, 

 with oblong acute veiny lobes. The anthers are subulate, some- 

 what united, becoming distinct. The stigmas revolute. The capsule 

 oblong and stalked. The seeds roundish, compressed, with a mem- 

 branous brownish border. The root of this species furnishes the 

 Gentian of commerce, a valuable bitter drug employed extensively in 

 certain forms of dyspepsia, in intermittent*, and as an anthehnintic. 

 In full doses it is apt to relax the bowls, and it does not always agree 

 with the stomach, in fact, it possesses a volatile principle capable of 

 producing nausea and a kind of intoxication. The root contains a 

 good deal of sugar and mucilage which enables the Swiss to prepare 

 from it a liqueur held in high esteem among the people. 



G. niralit, G. verna, and 0. Pneumonanthe are all described as British 



The following is an arrangement of the European species of this 

 genus : 



A. Tube of the corolla short or greatly enlarged at the mouth. 



Throat naked ; segments not fringed. 



I. Flowers in whorls or heads. 



a. Corolla without accessory plaits. 



G. lutea; G. Thomarii ' ; G. biloba; G. Otarpentieri ; G. 

 Gaudiniana. 



b. Corolla with accessory plaits. 



1. Calyx a sheath deeply divided on one side. 

 G. liuni-ii ; Q. purpurea ; G. matrophyUa. 



2. Calyx campanulate, with nearly equal teeth. 

 G. Pannonica ; G. punctata ; G. cruciata. 



II. Flowers solitary or in pairs. Corolla with accessory plates. 



G. aicleiiiadta; G. Pntumonanthe ; G. Fralichii; G. 

 frigida ; G. acaulit; G.excita. 



B. Tube of the corolla cylindrical, or somewhat barreled. Throat 



naked. Segments not fringed. 



I. Pereinial. Stems numerous, simple, 1 -flowered. 



G. Eararica; G. brachyjihylla ; G. verna; G. attira ; 

 G. imbricata; G. pumila ; G. Pyrenaica. 



II. Annual Stem single, branched, many -flowered. No barren 



shoots. Styles cloven. 

 G. prottrata ; Q. utriculota ; Q. niralit. 



C. Throat or corolla bearded. Hoot-leaves obovate ; stalked. 



I. Calyx tubular, 4- or 5-toothed. 



G. carnpcttrit; G. Germanica; G. Amartlla ; G. obtutifolia ; 



II. Calyx 4- or 5 -partite. Stem branched only at the base. 



Flower-stalks long and naked. 

 G. leneUa ; Q. nana. 



D. Throat naked. Segments of corolla fringed. 



G. cilia/a. 



As ornamental objects these plants are remarkable for the bril- 

 liant colours and beautiful forms of their flowers. The species are 

 extremely numerous, inhabiting the temperate parts of Europe, Asia, 

 and America, chiefly in mountainous situations, where they breathe a 

 pure and rarined air, are exposed to bright light during the short 

 summers of nuch regions, and although fixed during winter in places 

 intensely cold, yet are so well prepared to resist it by the warmth of 

 their summer, and so much protected by the snow that covers them, 

 as to suffer no injury. These alpine plants are consequently difficult 

 to cultivate, or ev..-n uncultivable, from the impossibility of imitating 

 their natural atmosphere ; and hence it is only a very small number 

 that are ever seen in gardens. The prevailing colours of their flowers 

 ate either an intense pure blue, or a bright clear yellow : some idea 

 may be formed of the brilliancy of the former from that of G. acaulit, 

 common species in gardens, where it is much employed for making 



edging to borders; the yellow species are equally represented by 

 (i. lutea. 



The ornamental species that are found easily capable of cult: 

 are G. lutra, with yellow, and G. atdepiadea, G. taponaria, G. cruciata, 

 G. teplemjiila, G. acaulit, and G. Pneumonanihe, with blue flow.-i 

 these all require a good American border of peat-earth to grow in, 

 with the exception of G. acaulit, which prefers the hardest and 

 stiflest clay. Many other species are named in gardening book*, but 

 they generally perish as soon as they are brought under the hands of 

 the cultivator. 



(I.iudley, Vegetable Kingdom; Wood, Tourittt Flora; Babington, 

 Manual of British Dotam/. 1 



GENTIANA'CE^E, Gentianvortt, an extensive order of I 

 belonging to the MonopetalouH Exogens, and consisting of herbaceous 

 plant*, with opposite ribbed leaves, and flowers whose corolla is 

 imbricated ; the stamens alternate with the petals ; the ovary supe- 

 rior, with two cells standing right and left of the axis of growth ; and 

 seeds containing a minute embryo lying in a mass of albumen. They 

 are generally considered to be in the closest alliance with Scrap/tula* 

 riacea, but it is possible that their resemblance to that order is one 

 of analogy rather than affinity. Along with Orobanchaccn 

 Monotropacea;, they seem rather to belong to the albuminous group 

 of Exogens, as has already been shown. [E.xouENS.] The flow 

 these plants are usually coloured with pure bright yellow, red, or 

 blue, and in many cases they are on this account among the most 

 beautiful of flowers ; but if we have a high development of form and 

 colour in the majority of the species of this order, so we also have in 

 the Guayana and Mexican plants belonging to the genus Voyra or 

 Leiphaimot the brown leafless habit and low development of Orolianr/ie. 

 This order is famous for its bitterness, which seems to pervade all 

 the species. Geniiana iteelf furnishes all the officinal kinds ; hut 

 Erythrcea Centaurium [EHVTHKJLA], a beautiful wild flower con 

 in many parts of England, is advantageously employed by country 

 people as a substitute ; and the root of Frazera Waltcri [FRAZEHA] 

 has been used as a means of adulterating the bitter Caluinba-root. 

 Cherayta, a Himalayan annual, is remarkable for the pureness of its 

 bitter. The whole plant is pulled up at the time the flowers begin 

 to decay, and dried for use. There are 60 genera and 450 species of 

 this order. 



3 l 



Common Gentian (Ornliann Infra}. 



1, a caprale ; the unit cut across* to >how the placenta) ; 3, a vertical section 

 of a magnified need. 



This order extends over almost all parts of the world, from the 

 regions of perpetual snow upon the summits of the mount 

 Europe, to the hottest sands of .South America ami India. They 

 however do not appear in the Flora of -Melville Island ; nml they 



