198 GENTIANACE2E. 



our only member of its family. Tlie plant grows from twelve 

 to eighteen inches high ; the leaves are glaucous, and the pairs 

 being united the stem seems to pierce its way through them : 

 hence it is called " perfoliate." The flower is large and cupped, 

 divided into eight segments, and of a brilliant yellow colour. 

 There are eight stamens and one stigma. It grows about 

 Studley, near Eipon, and I have also gathered it in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Goostery, Cheshire. 



The Buckbean family comes next, and, like the two that 

 precede it, it has only one British representative. 



The common Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata, Jig. 9), is a 

 beautiful plant with trefoil leaves, and a spike of pale, rose- 

 tinted flowers. It has five stamens and one pistil, and the 

 five-cleft corolla is thickly covered on the inside by a white 

 fringe; the leaves have large sheaths at their base, and both 

 these and the stem are tinged with crimson. It is a water 

 plant, and adorns ponds in many places. I have found it 

 about Eipon, and in peat bogs among the Yorkshire hills ; 

 also in Cheshire. 



The Water Villarsia is a very beautiful plant. Like the 

 Buckbean its corolla is fringed ; but the flower is cupped, 

 yellow, and of a large size. The leaves are heart-shaped and 

 wavy, and the flower-stalks spring from their axils ; the flowers 

 are solitary. It grows in ponds near Ely, and was sent to me 

 from thence. The only time I have seen it was in a ditch near 

 Oxford ; but the ditch was broad and deep, and baffled all my 

 attempts to reach its treasures. This is the last family of the 

 Gentian tribe. 



The Phlox tribe succeeds that of the Gentians, and our 

 gardens offer many beautiful representatives ; but we have no 

 indigenous ones. 



The Jacob's Ladder family has but one British member. 



The Blue Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium coeruleum, Plate XII. , 

 fig. 10), is a very rare plant, and I am proud to exhibit a speci- 

 men from Yorkshire. This piece was gathered at Leckby 



