196 GENTIA.NACEJE. 



Moor, and near Wicliffe in the Eipon neighbourhood. I have 

 found it also in abundance on high pastures about Richmond, 

 and in the Yorkshire dales. 



The Dwarf Gentian is the noble blue bell which adorns our 

 flower-borders. It grows on the mountains in South Wales, 

 but my specimen is from a garden. I fancy that this is the 

 species taking part in the imagined dialogue of Montgomery : 



" Blue thou art, intensely blue ! 

 Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue? 

 When I opened first mine eye, 

 Upward glancing to the sky, 

 Straightway from the firmament 

 Was the sapphire brilliance sent." 



The Alpine Gentian (G. alpina), has a very small blossom, 

 but the five-cleft corolla is of a brilliant blue. It graces some 

 of the Scotch mountains, but my plant did not grow in Britain. 

 I found it at the foot of the Gemini Pass, studding the sward 

 as with stars of Lapis lazuli. 



The Yellow Gentian, from the root of which the valuable 

 tonic drug is drawn, is found in the valleys of Switzerland 

 and Germany; and we used to gather a Bog Gentian there 

 also, with upright clusters of intense blue bells standing on 

 the summit of the stem, and in the axils of the leaves. 



The Centaury family is the second in the Gentian tribe. 

 I remember being much amused when in Switzerland by an 

 English gentleman of our party, who, returning from a distant 

 excursion, told me that he had found a plant far exceeding in 

 beauty all that I had yet collected. After this announcement 

 he produced from within his hat a parcel enveloped in his 

 pocket-handkerchief which, when opened, divulged the common 

 Centaury ! But whether common or not, it is certainly a flower 

 of great beauty. The sturdy plant grows five or six inches 

 high; the stem is mostly simple, and the panicle branches 

 proceed from the axils of the upper leaves. The corolla is 

 bright rose colour, divided into five segments, the tube tinged 

 with yellow. It grows on some pasture lands called Eipon 



