Frasera. GENTIANACE.E. 483 



narrower : flowers mostly 5 to 20 and racemose or spicate, forming a leafy thyrsus 

 (rarely solitary in depauperate plants) : calyx lobes narrow and unequal, mostly 

 linear and the longest shorter than the tube : corolla short-funnelform, blue (an 

 inch or more in length) ; appendages triangular, acute, mostly 2-cleft or 2 4-cuspi- 

 date, shorter than the round-ovate lobes : seeds ovate or oblong, flat, wing-margined. 



Var. ovata, Gray : a form with ovate or oblong leaves, and fewer commonly 

 larger flowers , the calyx-lobes lanceolate and as long as the tube ; the lobes of the 

 corolla commonly rounder. 



Northeastern portions of the Sierra Nevada, at 5,000 feet, &c. ; thence north to British Co- 

 lumbia, and eastward to the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Rupert's Land. The var. 

 from near San Francisco (Bolatider) to Klamath Valley in Oregon (Cronkhite) and the borders 

 of British Columbia (Lynll), appearing to be different, and with the aspect of the next, but 

 passing into ordinary forms of the species. 



* * Appendages of the plaits in the sinuses hardly any, or short and broadly trun- 

 cate, naked : seeds wingless : only the lowest pairs of leaves with slieathing base. 



8. Gr. sceptrum, Grisebach. Erect, 2 to 4 feet high, leafy : leaves from ovate 

 to oblong-lanceolate (an inch or two long) : flowers several and racemosely or spi- 

 cately clustered, sometimes almost solitary : corolla campanulate, an inch and a 

 half long ; its lobes broad and rhombic-rounded : seeds somewhat fusiform, narrowed 

 into a cellular appendage at both ends. Hook. Fl. ii. 57, t. 145. 



Var. humilis, Engelra. ined. Much smaller : stems slender and weaker, a foot 

 or two long, one few-flowered : corolla an inch and a quarter in length; the sinuses 

 sometimes 2 3-crenate. G. Menziesii, Grisebach, 1. c. G. affinis, Gray in coll. 

 E. Hall, No. 426, & Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 398. 



The ordinary form is common in Oregon, and it may confidently be expected in the north- 

 eastern part of the State. The var. humilis, on Mendocino Plains, Bolander ; Oregon, E. Hall; 

 also Mcnzics, this being without much doubt G. Mcnziesii. At first view it seems abundantly 

 distinct from G. sceptrum. Calyx-lobes variable, as in all these species, commonly longer than 

 the tube, and unequal, lanceolate or oblong-linear. 



4. FRASERA, Walter. 



Calyx deeply 4-parted, slightly imbricated in the bud. Corolla rotate, 4-parted, 

 persistent ; the divisions convolute in the bud ; their inner face furnished with a 

 large depressed gland or pair of glands, which are bordered by a fringe, sometimes 

 a crown of bristles or scales at their base. Stamens inserted on the very base of 

 the corolla : filaments subulate, distinct or obscurely monadelphous at base. Ovary 

 ovate, tapering into a conspicuous and persistent style : stigma small, 2-lobed or 

 entire. Capsule coriaceous, commonly flattened, strictly one-celled, few 30-seeded. 

 Seeds comparatively large, flat, sometimes margined. Glabrous and commonly 

 stout herbs, or one slender species puberulent, all North American, and all but one 

 far-western; with a thick and purely bitter biennial root, an erect leafy stem, bear- 

 ing opposite or whorled leaves (which when broad are nervose, and in most species 

 cartilaginous-margined), and abundant rather large flowers in cymose clusters ; the 

 corolla dull white, yellowish, or bluish, and commonly dark-dotted. Parts of the 

 flower sometimes in fives] 



The root of the Atlantic species, F. Carolinensis, has been used in medicine as a bitter tonic. 

 This (with capsule strongly flattened parallel with the valves) and 



F. THYRSIFLORA, Hook. Kew Jour. Bot. iii. 288, of the interior of Oregon (the only known 

 species not either described or mentioned below), has marginless leaves and single round glands 

 upon each lobe of the corolla. The style in the latter is short, as in Swcrtia. We have not 

 seen any flowers with their parts in fives, either in this or in F. albicaulis, although both are so 

 described by Hooker. 



