Annual. Steins herbaceous, 4-sided, glabrous, the angles slightly 

 winged : branches few, opposite, diffuse. Leaves opposite, decussate, 

 linear-lanceolate, tapering at the base, and embracing the stem with the 

 short petioles, smooth, 3-nerved, much paler below. Flowers 6 or 8 

 together, in axillary whorls, sessile, white, each furnished with a linear 

 spathulate bractea. Calyx o-cleft, divisions acute, margined, reflexed 

 at the point, permanent, and closely embracing the base of the mature 

 capsule. Corolla tubular, 5-cleft ; divisions obtuse, spreading, oblique 

 at the base. After withering, the corolla remains closely investing the 

 capsule until it bursts. Stamens 5 ,- filaments attached to the middle 

 of the tube, and furnished at the base with a small projection which 

 rests on the stigma, and closes the tube. Anthers linear-oblong, erect, 

 subsagittate, 2-celled. Ovary superior; style short; stigma capitate. 

 Capsule 2-valved, 1-celled, the margins inflexed, and bearing the nume- 

 rous, small, round, brownish seeds. W. and A. The whole plant is 

 somewhat bitter, though much less so than many of its natural allies. 

 Like them it is employed by the natives of India as a stomachic, and is 

 administered in decoction or powder. Thus used it is also said to act 

 as a laxative. Wight. 



ERYTHRvEA. 



Calyx 5-parted, equal. Corolla hypocrateriform with a cylin- 

 drical tube, withering over the capsule. Stamens 5; anthers be- 

 coming spiral. Stigmas bilamellate. Capsule 1-celled or half 

 2-celled. 



1099. E. Centaurium Pers. syn. i. 283. Smith Eng. Fl. i. 320. 

 Chironia Centaurium Eng. Bot. t. 417- Woodv. t. 157. 

 Gentiana Centaurium Linn. sp. 332. Dry gravelly pastures in 

 Europe. 



Root small, tapering. Stem about a foot high, leafy, sometimes 

 branched at the upper part, and, when very luxuriant, from the base 

 also. Radical leaves obovate, numerous, depressed ; the rest acute, 

 ovate, or elliptic-lanceolate ; all 3-ribbed, bright green. Flowers nearly 

 sessile, from the forks and terminations of a corymbose, more or less 

 dense, repeatedly subdivided, leafy or bracteated, panicle. Bracteas 

 opposite, awl-shaped. Calyx slender, partly membranous, sometimes 

 more than half as long as the pale greenish tube of the corolla, whose 

 limb is of a most exquisite and brilliant pink, rarely white ; expanded 

 only in sunshine, and closing as soon as gathered. Anthers yellow, 

 spiral, with 3 convolutions, after bursting. Style rather oblique, if not 

 curved or deflexed. Capsule slender, brown, invested closely with the 

 permanent dilated tube of the corolla. Smith. This wild plant possesses 

 all the essential properties of the gentian of the shops, and although not 

 used professionally is a very valuable native medicine. In the places 

 where it grows it is carefully collected for use in rustic pharmacy. 



CHLORA. 



Sepals 8. Corolla rotate, with 6-8 segments withering round 

 the capsule. Stigma bilamellate. Anthers not altering. Capsule 

 1-celled, with spongy placentae. Seeds angular. 



1100. C. perfoliata Linn. syst. nat. ed. 12. ii. 267. Eng. Bot. 



521 



