coville] THE GENTIAN 261 



flowers, which is similar to the "Heaven's own blue" of the fringed 

 gentian. The deep tinted flowers are firmly closed as though to 

 protect the delicate reproductive organs within from the sharp 

 touches of the late year. In this way also the precious nectar is 

 guarded from pilfering wanderers. The large conspicuous blue or 

 blue and white flowers remain apparently closed. At the tip of 

 the flower are five short lobes which overlap leaving no opening — 

 an ant could not pass. It would seem that it must be self-pollenated 

 and we should wonder why the flower had developed so elaborately. 

 But the bumble-bee can tell you better. She knows the secret 

 combination which opens the portals of the flower. She visits the 

 young flower, forces her way in where he can see white against the 

 light blue background. And through this medium the gentian is 

 cross-fertilized. 



Sarah Day has a sweet conception of the closed gentian : 



"Dame Nature lisped one day 



To these closed buds some secret fair, 

 Then given earnest charge that they 



Should keep her council with all care; 

 For ever since, they seem to say 



Through pursed up lips — each purple bell — 

 Whate'er we hold of rich and rare, 



We'll never tell, no never tell!" 



It is always a temptation to gather gentians when we find them 

 but it is a temptation which should be resisted, for not only does 

 the spirit of their loveliness escape with imprisonment outside of 

 their natural environment, but this beautiful flower is fast becom- 

 ing extinct. 



The gentians are found in shady places, along the banks of 

 streams, though not in the water, but where tufted grasses are 

 watered by threading springs that ooze up drop by drop and keep 

 its roots moist. Our search for the plant is always attended by the 

 charm of uncertainty, for being an annual, with seeds easily brushed 

 away it often changes its haunts from year to year. So that it is 

 quite a treat to find among the grasses one of these heaven-sent 

 spots of azure. 



The gentian is sometimes grown commercially. So bitter and 

 tonic an element is contained in the roots that people have used it 

 as a substitute for quinine. Through the mountains of the 

 South the gentians are indiscriminately called Sawson's Snakeroot 

 and the decoctions from them are taken in great doses as a remedy 

 for dyspepsia and are favorably regarded as powerful tonics for 



