A LILLIPUTIAN GENTIAN. 255 



The Gentiana kurroo of the Himalayas, and the British 

 species, Gentiana campestris and Gentiana amarella^ possess 

 the tonic properties of the family. The Cheritta of the 

 pharmacopoeia is the herb and root of Agathotes chirayta 

 (Ophelia ckirata), a herbaceous plant which flourishes in the 

 Himalayas. 



We must not omit a reference to a Lilliputian gentian, 

 the filiform gentian of Linnaeus, and the Exacum filiforme or 

 Cicendia filiformis of other botanical authorities. 



Its stem, from two and a half to four inches in length, is 

 embellished with radical oblong leaves, disposed in fours, 

 and short caulinary leaves, opposite and linear ; the corolla 

 is yellow, the calyx has four triangular lobes; the stamens 

 also are four. It is this predominant number which has 

 induced some botanists to elevate our little gentian into a 

 species of Exacum or Cicendia^ two genera, of which the 

 first was named by Adamson, the second by De Candolle. 

 As for the tiny Gentiana pusilla, or Exacum pusillum, we 

 may look upon it as a simple variety of the Exacum filiforme, 

 differing from the latter only in its shorter and feebler stem, in the 

 somewhat narrower divisions of its calyx, and the tint of its 

 corolla, which is of a paler yellow, sometimes inclining to rose. 



Botanists, or lovers of flowers, may grow as passionately 

 fond of gentians as some persons do of tulips or hyacinths. 

 But it is not in England or Scotland, it is in the Alpine pas- 

 tures of Switzerland only, that you can hope to satisfy your 

 Gentianomania. 



