254 AN ALPINE PLANT. 



called) connective prolongation separates the two lobes of the 

 pollen receptacle. The anthers are then introrse (introrsum^ 

 inwardly) that is to say, their face being inclined inwards, they 

 look towards the centre of the flower, occupied by the style, a 

 filiform prolongation of the ovary; the apex of 

 the style (stigma) is thick, globulose, and of a 

 FIG. 35. glandular structure. The fruit, resulting from the 



Anthers of the ' 



Centaury. metamorphosis of the ovary, is an elongated fusi- 

 form capsule, composed of two lobes, each containing a very 

 large number of extremely small seeds. 



The characters we have just enumerated apply, or the 

 majority of them, to the interesting family of the Gentianacese 

 a natural group of plants, nearly all remarkable for their 

 bitter, febrifugal, and anti-scrofulous properties. The flower- 

 ing cymes of the common centaury are very frequently em- 

 ployed as a substitute for the medicinal gentian, so well known 

 as a valuable tonic. 



The medicinal gentian is the Gentiana lutea, a plant 

 growing about three feet high, which thrives abundantly on 

 the Pyrenees, and the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, at 

 an elevation of 3000 to 5000 feet. It is not, however, so 

 common now as formerly on the Alpine heights, owing pro- 

 bably to its great consumption, but it is spreading into many 

 districts of Central Europe. 



Frequent enough in the vicinity of Paris is the Chlora 

 perforata, a gentian remarkable for its glaucous leaves and 

 yellow terminal flowers. 



