GEN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



G EO 



605 



that it flowers in summer after the solstice, and with us in 

 September and October. Various months are set down by 

 others, as from April to June, and August: Dr. Withering 

 has seen it flowering in a garden in October. Native of most 

 parts of Europe, from Lapland to Sirily ; and is often found 

 in Russia, and in Siberia, near the lake Baikal. In England 

 it is observed near Kendal, and other places in the north ; 

 near Bury, in Suffolk, and Stratum heath in Norfolk; also in 

 Cornwall, Cheshire, and Wales. 



44. Gentiana Ciliata; F ringed-flowered Gentian. Corol- 

 las four-cleft, ciliate at the edge; root small, round, straight, 

 biennial ; stalk from two to eight inches long, reddish, angu- 

 lar, smooth, leafy, sometimes simple and one-flowered, some- 

 times with opposite branches, terminated by upright, sessile, 

 solitary flowers ; leaves sessile, the lower ones shorter, 

 obovate, or spatulate, the rest linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 longer, quite entire, upright, smooth, not veined. The 

 corolla varies in different countries; in America, it is much 

 ciliated, in Italy but little, in Iceland and Norway it is 

 only serrate.- Native of Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, 

 Germany, Austria, Carniola, Italy, Siberia, Caucasus, and 

 Canada. It flowers in August and September; and till Oc- 

 tober in Italy, and even till winter. It is used as a medicine 

 by the natives, and^deserves admittance into every garden for 

 the beauty of its flowers. For its propagation and culture, 

 see the fourteenth species. 



45. Gentiana Cruciata; Crosswort Gentian. Corollas 

 four-cleft, beardless; flowers in whorls, sessile; leaves lan- 

 ceolate, three-nerved, connate ; flowers few from the lower 

 axils, but more crowded from the top of the stalk. At each 

 bunch of flowers there are two small leaves ; calix short, 

 truncate, with the teeth remote and short ; corolla of a fine 

 blue colour. The root is perennial, and puts up several 

 stalks, from a span to a foot high and more. The leaves 

 being in pairs, and each pair crossing the next at right 

 angles, has given occasion to the trivial name cruciata, and 

 the English name Crosswort Gentian. In the English gar- 

 dens, it flowers in June, and* sometimes in May; in other 

 parts, it flowers in July and August. Native of Switzerland, 

 Germany, Austria, Carniola, Hungary, the Apennines, Sibe- 

 ria, and various parts of the Russian empire. For its pro- 

 pagation and culture, see the fourteenth species. 



4(i. Gentiana Sessilis. Corollas four-cleft; flowers stem- 

 less; leaves ovate. Native of Chili. 



47. Gentiana Filiformis ; Least Gentian, or Marsh Cen- 

 taury. Corollas four-cleft, beardless; stalk dichotomous, 

 filiform i root white, woody, simple, or with large fibres; 

 root-leaves small, narrow, oblong; stalk about three inches 

 hi^h, simple or branched, at each joint a pair of small, nar- 

 row, sharp leaves; flowers at the end of the branches on long 

 pedicels, yellow, small, almost always closed, seeming, as far 

 as could be discerned, to have h've petals; capsule elliptical. 

 l',\viy part of the herb is smooth; the flowers expand only 

 in bright sunshine. The time of flowering is July. It is a 

 small annual plant, growing in the bogs of Denmark, France, 

 and England. Mr. Ray first noticed it, in rotten marshy 

 ground, near St. Ives in Cornwall. Dr. Pulteney sent it out 

 of Dorsetshire; and it has since been found in Hampshire 

 and Devonshire. 



48. Gentiana Ileteroclita; Irregular Gentian. Flowers 

 four-cleft, irregular; stalk brachiate; root annual, fibrous; 

 stalk erect, a span high, dichotomous, quadrangular; leaves 

 sessile, ovate, quite entire, smooth, somewhat fleshy; the 

 lower ones roundish ; under the upper ramifications awl- 

 shaped, very short; flowers sessile, solitary in the divisions 

 of the stem, of a purple colour. Native of Malabar. 



VOL. i. 51. 



49. Gentiana Scandens; Climbing Gentian. Stem shrub- 

 by, climbing ; corollas bell-shaped, five-cleft, in elongated 

 pendulous panicles; stem large, woody, round, with many very 

 long climbing branches, without spines or tendrils; leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, quite entire, smooth, ash-coloured, opposite ; 

 flowers lateral, with a small fine-toothed calix, and a bell- 

 shaped corolla, with a wide tube, on the outside ash-coloured, 

 dotted with white, within filled up with dense purple hairs ; 

 border spreading, white, bluntly five-cleft, short; the seg- 

 ments usually laciniate, plaited; capsule roundish. Native 

 both of China and Cochin-china, climbing trees and hedges. 

 It has an unpleasant fetid smell, which is lost in drying, and 

 a very bitter flavour. In the Chinese plant, the leaves art.- 

 often cordate, slightly emarginate at the base. It is tonic 

 and stomachic. 



50. Gentiana Fimbriata; Fringed Gentian. Corollas bell- 

 shaped, ten-cleft, alternate segments fringed and smaller; 

 stem round, erect, simple ; leaves lanceolate, connate at the 

 base, two inches long, very smooth, three-nerved ; flowers 

 from the upper axils and at the end of the stalk, the lower 

 ones solitary on each side, sometimes only in one axil, the 

 terminating ones four, sessile ; corolla large, au inch and a 

 half wide. Native of Virginia. 



51. Gentiana DifFusa; Branched Gentian. Stem branched, 

 dichotomous, divaricate ; leaves ovate-oblong ; peduncles 

 capillary, one or two flowered. Stem herbaceous, four- 

 cornered, with decurrent lines, smooth ; leaves sessile, 

 opposite, an inch long ; the upper ones subcordate, all very 

 smooth, ending in a short dogger-point, and three-nerved; 

 peduncles at the ends of the branchlets commonly in pairs, 

 one longer, two-flowered, the other shorter, one-flowered ; at 

 the base, on each side, is a bristle-shaped leaf; calix tubular, 

 smooth. Native of the East Indies. 



52. Gentiana Albens ; White Gentian. Leaves ovate, stem- 

 clasping; calices ovate; stem trichotomous. Native of the 

 Cape. 



53. Gentiana Dubia; Doubtful Gentian. Corollas four- 

 cleft; calix lanceolate; panicle terminating, trichotomous, 

 superdecompound. -Native of the Cape. 



Geoffroya ; a genus of the class Diadelphia, order De- 

 candria.- GKNEIUC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, bell-shaped, half five-cleft; the two upper divisions 

 diverging, spreading. Corolla: papilionaceous; banner 

 roundish, emarginate, flat, reflex; wings the same length 

 with the banner, blunt, concave; keel compressed, the same 

 length and figure with the wings. Stamina : filamenta dia- 

 delphons, (simple and nine-cleft,) the length of the keel; 

 anthem roundish. Pistil: gerrnen roundish; style subu- 

 late; stigma obtuse. Pericarp: drupe ovate, large, with 

 a longitudinal groove on each side. Seed : nut subovate, 

 woody, rather flatted, with a longitudinal groove on each 

 side, acute, two-valved. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: 



five-cleft. Drupe : ovate. Nut : flatted. The species 



are, 



1. Geoffroya Spinosa; Thorny Geoffroya. Thorny: 

 leaflets oblong. It is described by Jacquin as an inelegant 

 tree, twelve feet high, upright, branched; thorns few, awl- 

 shaped, frequently an inch long, thick on the trunk and 

 branches; leaves pinnate; mid-rib smooth, grooved above, 

 four inches long; leaflets commonly seven on each side, with 

 an odd one, oblong, blunt, smooth, quite entire; racemes 

 simple, dense, axillary, three or four inches long; flowers 

 on very short peduncles, with corollas of a dirty fulvous co- 

 lour, diffusing widely a most fetid odour. The drupe dots 

 not ill represent the fresh fruit of an almond ; the rind is 

 very slighly tomentose, and of a greenish yellow colour; 

 7 P 



