MENYANTHACEAE. 193 



Gentiana oregana Engelm. Perennial, pale green, the stems erect, 15-50 

 cm. high; leaves in numerous pairs, ovate, sessile, acuminate or obtuse, 2-4 

 cm. long; the margins minutely scabrous; flowers few in a terminal cluster 

 or often many in racemose clusters; bracts oblong-lanceolate, short- petioled ; 

 calyx-lobes lanceolate, a little longer than the tube; corolla deep blue, 25-35 

 mm. long, the plaits extended into somewhat cleft appendages shorter than 

 the acute or acuminate lobes. Low or moist places, rather common. 



Gentiana affinis Griseb. Perennial, tufted, green; stems erect or ascending, 

 20-30 cm. high; leaves rather narrow, oblong, lanceolate or linear, 2-4 cm. 

 long; bracts lanceolate to linear; flowers 5-20, in racemes; calyx-lobes unequal, 

 linear or subulate, mostly shorter than the tube; corolla blue, 3 cm. long, the 

 appendages cleft and shorter than the lobes. Spokane County. 



285. FRASERA. 



Tall, erect herbs, with mostly simple stems; leaves opposite 

 or whorled; flowers rather large, numerous, in open cymes ar- 

 ranged in an elongated panicle; calyx deeply 4-parted; corolla 

 4-parted, rotate, each lobe with a glandular and fringed pit on its 

 face; anthers oblong, remaining straight with age; stigma 2- 

 lobed. 



Leaves narrow, opposite. F. albicaulis. 



Leaves broad, whorled. F. fastigiata. 



Frasera albicaulis Dpugl. Minutely puberulent throughout, pale-green; 

 stems erect, 15-45 cm. high; leaves opposite, mostly clustered at base, oblong- 

 lanceolate, obtuse, 3-nerved, with a white hard margin, 5-10 cm. long, the 

 basal ones narrowed into margined petioles; panicle narrow, its branches 

 erect, 5-15 cm. long; calyx-lobes lanceolate, 6-10 mm. long; corolla blue, 

 somewhat exceeding the calyx; glands oblong, coarsely fringed, sac-like at 

 base; scales between the filaments cleft into thread-like lobes; pods flat, 

 twice as long as the calyx, tipped by the persistent style; seeds dark, flat, 

 rough. Hillsides, not common. 



Frasera fastigiata (Pursh) Heller. Glabrous throughout; stems stout, 

 100-150 cm. high; leaves marginless, the basal ones spatulate-oblanceolate, 

 abruptly acuminate or obtuse, 15-40 cm. long, narrowed at base into a margined 

 petiole; cauline in whorls of 3, sessile, 8-20 cm. long; panicle terminal, 10-30 

 cm. long, rather dense; bracts lanceolate or subulate; sepals attenuate-lanceo- 

 late, about 8-10 mm. long; corolla blue-purple, longer than the calyx; glands 

 round, a single one near the base of each lobe; styles very short; capsules 

 ovate, much flattened; seeds flat, thin-margined, minutely pitted. Common 

 in open pine woods, Whitman and Spokane Counties and adjacent Idaho. 



Family 71. MENYANTHACEAE. 



Perennial aquatic or marsh herbs, with basal or alternate entire 

 crenate or trifoliolate leaves; flowers clustered, regular, perfect; 

 calyx deeply 5-parted, persistent; corolla funnelform to rotate, 

 5-lobed or 5-cleft; stamens 5, epipetalous, alternate with the 

 corolla-lobes; style long, short, or none; ovary 1 -celled with two 

 parietal placentae; fruit dehiscent or indehiscent. 



