GENTIANS. 195 



as is the flavour of every species of this beautiful tribe, all 

 are wholesome, and some beneficial. Generally the plants have 

 five stamens, and the corolla is five-cleft. They inhabit both 

 cold and warm climates. The Gentian family have blue or 

 lilac flowers, I mean the British species of it. 



The Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe), has bright 

 blue flowers shaded towards the centre of the bell with black 

 and yellow. It has narrow leaves, and at Leckby Scar it 

 reaches a span high ; but on Rudd Heath, in Cheshire, where 

 I have also gathered it, the height is not more than two or 

 three inches. 



The Spring Gentian (G. verna, Plate XIL, fig. 6), with its 

 intensely blue corolla cut into round segments and wheel-shaped, 

 favours our county. Its principal habitat is the neighbourhood 

 of the High Force, Teesdale, where my specimen grew. In 

 size it is smaller than the least plant of the Marsh Gentian. 



The Autumnal Gentian (G. amarella), is a taller plant, at 

 least six inches high. It has a five-cleft corolla, of a clear 

 lilac colour. We found it in some fields on the hills between 

 Wensleydale and Swaledale, crossing by the Butter-tub Pass. 

 These so-called Butter-tubs are strange freaks of Nature : 

 deep holes in the solid mountain with rough rocks jutting out 

 from their sides draped with Ferns. In some the water can be 

 heard to gurgle far below, but in others neither water nor any 

 other bottom can be discerned. The calling of the district 

 being essentially a dairy one, these frightful crevices are named 

 "Butter-tubs." Doubtless water was the principal agent in 

 their formation, washing away the moveable earth and leaving 

 the rocky masses in naked grandeur. The blossoms of this 

 Gentian are arranged in panicles, the side branches also bearing 

 flowers. It blooms in August. 



The Field Gentian (G. campestris), resembles the Autumn 

 Gentian, but is smaller ; the colour of the corolla is less clear, 

 and is four-cleft. The plant grows freely on gravelly pastures. 

 We used to gather it on a limestone waste, called Quarry 



