GENTIANA ANDREWSII. 



CLOSED GENTIAN. 



NATURAL ORDER, GENTIANACE^. 



GENTIANA ANDREWSII, Grisebach.— Stems stout, a foot or two high, smooth: leaves from ovate 

 to broadly lanceolate, gradually acuminate, contracted at the base, two to four inches long : 

 calyx-lobes lanceolate to ovate, usually spreading or recurved, shorter than the tube: 

 corolla as in Gentiana Saponaria, but more oblong, and the lobes obliterated or obsolete, 

 the truncate and usually closed border mainly consisting of the prominent fimbriate-den- 

 tate intervening appendages : seeds with a conspicuous wing, oblong in outline. (Gray's 

 Synoptical Flora of North Afiierica. See also Gray's Flora of the Northern United 

 States, Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, and Wood's Class - Book of 

 Botany.) 



HERE are but few persons who have been observers of 

 flowers in the temperate regions of the world who do 

 not know the Gentian, for most of the family have very attractive 

 characters which thrust themselves on our attention, whether we 

 will or no. Modern botanists enumerate about one hundred and 

 fifty species ; but the limits of the genus are not capable of a very 

 exact definition, and hence some botanists might give even a 

 larger list than this. They ar.e chiefly Alpine, and very few are 

 found in low altitudes, but of these our present subject is one. 

 According to Dr. Gray, from whom we have the botanical de- 

 scription at the head of our chapter, it is found " in moist ground, 

 New England and Canada to Saskatchewan, and south to the 



o 



upper part of Georgia." It is generally known as the "closed 

 Gentian," because, though most of the species open under sun- 

 light, and close at certain times, this one rarely does. The 

 rapid manner in which some species open and shut is very 

 interesting. The writer has seen species on Alpine heights, which 



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