* 

 Hrythrasa. GENTIAN ACE^E. 479 



SUBORDER II. MENYANTHE.E. 



Lobes of the corolla induplicate in the bud. Seeds rather few and with a thick 

 hard and close coat. Aquatic or bog plants, with alternate leaves, sometimes of 3 

 leaflets ; the petioles sheathing at base. Represented only by 

 5. Menyanthes. Corolla deciduous, 5-cleft ; the lobes within white-bearded : flowers racemose. 



1. ERYTHEMA, Pers. CANCHALAGUA. 



Calyx 5-parted, or occasionally 4-parted ; the divisions slender. Corolla salver- 

 form, withering-persistent on the capsule ; the lobes convolute in the bud. Stamens 

 inserted on the throat of the corolla : filaments slender : anthers oblong or linear, 

 twisting spirally (in 2 to 4 turns) after sltedding the pollen. Style filiform, at 

 length deciduous : stigmas, in ours wedge-shaped or fan-shaped, before expansion 

 commonly appearing as if united and compressed-capitate. Capsule from oblong- 

 ovate to lanceolate-cylindraceous ; the sutures little or considerably introflexed. 

 Seeds very numerous, globular or oblong, with a close reticulate-pitted coat. 

 Low herbs (both of the Old and New World, in warm-temperate regions), mainly 

 annuals ; with bitter roots, cymose inflorescence, and usually pink or rose-red flowers 

 (whence the generic name). 



Like the Gentians, these plants are bitter tonics ; and, in California as well as in Chili, are in 

 medicinal repute, under the name of Canchalagua. Dr. Engelmann points out a character in 

 the stigmas, i. e. that in the European species, excepting the peculiar E. maritima, they are 

 broadly ovate or with rounded summit, while in the American they are either cuneate or flabelli- 

 form, the summit truncate, or in E. Chilensis emarginate. 



E. (GYRANI>RA) CHIRONIOIDES (not of Torr.) and E. SPECIOSA (Gyrandra, Grisebach, and 

 Benth. Bot. Sulph. t. 45) large-flowered species, which hardly differ except in the shorter 

 filaments of the latter are Mexican only, and are sectionally distinguished by having the 

 apparently pale and broad corolla-lobes rather longer than the tube at the time of opening, and 

 the capsule oval. In all the following the capsule is from elongated-oblong to fusiform. 



* Corolla large ; its limb at first almost as long as the tube : seeds globular : in- 



florescence corymbosely cymose : peduncles as long as the calyx. 



1. E. venusta, Gray. A span to a foot high, simple and cymosely several- 

 flowered at summit, or corymbosely branched: leaves from ovate to oblong-lanceo- 

 late, rather obtuse (half to near an inch long) : calyx-lobes very narrow down to the 

 base: corolla deep and bright pink with a yellow centre; the lobes oval and obtuse, 

 becoming oblong, 4 to 6 lines in length : filaments rather longer than the oblong- 

 linear anthers. E. chironioides, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 156, t. 42, excl. syn. 

 E. tricantha, Durand in Pacif. E. Rep. v. t. 9, not Griseb. 



Common through all the southern part of the State, and extending (mostly in a smaller form) 

 along the Sierra Nevada to Sierra Co., up to about 4,000 feet. The name given in Coulter's collec- 

 tion, &c., 25 years ago, is now resumed for this, the handsomest and one of the largest-flowered 

 species of the genus. 



* * Corolla vnth lobes shorter than the tube: seeds oblong: inflorescence cymose- 

 clustered; the crowded flowers sessile or nearly so in the forks, and the lateral ones 

 unth a pair of bracts under the calyx : stigmas small. 



2. E. trichantha, Grisebach. A span or less high, fastigiately branched : leaves 

 from broadly oblong and obtuse to lanceolate and acute (6 to 12 lines long) : lobes 

 of the rose-red corolla lanceolate, fully half the length of the tube at the time of 

 expansion (3 or 4 lines long), becoming narrow and by involution acuminate with 

 age : calyx-lobes filiform-triquetrous : anthers linear. Gent. 146, & DC. Prodr. ix. 

 60, excl. var. angustifolia. 



Common near the coast from Lake Co. and the Valley of the Lower Sacramento to Monterey. 



