Swertia.'] xcvu. GBNTIANACE^J. (C. B. Clarke.) 121 



W. DECCAN PENINSULA ; in the Ghats, from Bombay southwards ; common in the 

 Nilgherries. 



Stem 2-9 in., usually undivided at the base, without radical leaves. Cauline 

 leaves ~ by in., sessile. Sepals by -| in. elliptic. Corolla white or clear blue, 

 nearly 5-partite ; segments oblong, base naked or minutely glandular, scarcely pitted. 

 Anthers small, ovate, much shorter than the filamept. Ovary sessile, oblong ; stigma 

 sessile, shortly bilobed. Capsule % in., oblong. Seeds minute, subglobose. Genus 

 doubtful ; in the symmetrical erect habit, 4-merous flowers, corolla without green 

 nerves, it approaches Swertia Sect. Ophelia (see Swertia Beddomei). 



12. SWERTIA,Zmw. 



Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves opposite except in #. altemifolia. Flowers 

 blue, lurid, or whiteish, sometimes with yellow glands ; cymes in thyrsoid or 

 corymbose panicles. Sepals 4-5, lanceolate, rarely ovate. Corolla rotate ; lobes 

 4-5, twisted to the right ; on each lobe (or on the short corolla-tube below its 

 base) are 1 or 2 pits depressions or glands, naked or partly covered by a basal 

 scale ; margins of pits fimbriate all round, or at its apex only ; scale naked or 

 tips fimbriate. Stamens 4-5, attached near the base of the corolla, free, rarely 

 monadelphous, filaments linear complanate, often more or less dilated down- 

 wards ; anthers oblong ovate or hastate, versatile. Ovary 1-celled, placentae 

 little intruded ; style or short rarely linear-cylindric, stigmas 2. Capsule 

 sessile, ovate or oblong, separating iilto its 2 carpels. Seeds various, many, 

 rarely few, small or minute, testa close or very lax or winged reticulate. 

 Species 50 ; in Europe, Asia, and Africa, principally in the mountains. 



In the species with one pit at the very base of each corolla-lobe, this pit seems 

 homologous with the spur of Halenia. There is a passage from the species 

 with a depressed broad viscous spot, fimbriate on the margins only to those which 

 have 2 small lateral linear vertical glands ; among these S. ccerulea, with very small 

 depressions, should perhaps be removed to Pleurogync. In S. bimaculata, where there 

 are 2 green viscous spots, scarcely depressed, in the middle of the corolla -lobes, the 

 morphology is obscure. 



STTBGENTJS I. Ophelia. Stems annual or once-flowering, erect, panicled, 

 solid, virgate. Radical leaves at the time of flowering. 



* Floivers all (or most of them} 5-merous. 

 f Sepals almost free. 



1. S. pur pur asc ens, Wall. Cat. 4379 ; leaves oblong or lanceolate 3-1- 

 nerved, filaments dilated downwards united into a short tube free from the 

 corolla, style long stigmas sublinear. Ophelia purpurascens, D. Don in Trans. 

 Linn. Soc. xvii. 526; Griseb. Gentian. 315, and in DC. Prodr. ix. 124; Wight 

 111. t. 157, bis 3, fig. d. O. Dalhousiana, Griseb. Gentian. 313, and in DC. 

 Prodr. ix. 123. 0. ciliata, G. Don Gen. Syst. iv. 178. 



TEMPERATE N.W. HIMALAYA, alt. 5-12,000 ft.; from Kashmir to Kumaon; 

 abundant near Dalhousie and Dhurmsala. 



Stems 8-36 in., terete or 4-lineolate. Leaves 1 by J in., base narrowed, lowest 

 subobtuse, uppermost acute, glabrous, Panicles divaricate, many-flowered, leafy ; 

 pedicels often clustered. Sepals % in., oblong, 1 -nerved. Corolla-lobes in., ovate, 

 acute, purple or dark red, reflexed in flower ; pits solitary near the base of each lobe, 

 horse-shoe shaped, naked. Stamen-tube erect, and filaments puberulous; anthers 

 elliptic-lanceolate, much acuminate. Seeds 6 in. diam., globose, smooth, light-yellow 

 when ripe. Grisebach's type specimens of S. purpurascens and Dalhousiana are 

 identical. This species is recognised at once by the red-purple much-reflexed corolla- 

 lobes. There is a strong purple band near the base of the corolla-lobe which is 



