380 WILD FLOWERS. 



from the fields, is at once far more efficacious and 

 far safer. 



Two well-known preparations of the gentian are 

 exported from the Himalaya Mountains. These are 

 yielded by the same plant, the G. kurroa ; the root 

 being sold under the name of kurroa, and the dried 

 leaves under that of cheretta. 



Foremost in the list of beauty displayed by our 

 English gentians must stand the glorious azure- 

 lipped gentianella (G. acaulis), so well known in 

 our gardens, but whose claims to be indigenous 

 rest on a somewhat dubious footing. Such, at 

 least, is the general opinion on the subject ; but I 

 think that if it be candidly and carefully examined, 

 the claim will be found to hold good. Or, if it be 

 not admitted, a very large proportion of plants must 

 be expunged from our Floras. 



Scarcely less beautiful, and, if possible, even 

 brighter, is the exquisite little snow-gentian (G. ni- 

 vdlis), which compensates, by the dense and moss- 

 like tufts of its blossoms, for its inferiority in point 

 of size to the gentianella. It grows, as its name 

 implies, on our loftiest mountain ranges, as Ben 

 Lawers, and Snowdon, but is far better known as 

 a native of the Alps and Pyrenees, than of our 

 land. This is the plant described in the lines 

 already quoted. 



Our remaining blue gentian is the marsh-gentian, 

 or, the so-called, Calathian violet (G. pneumonanthe), 

 which is quite different in character from the others. 

 Its flower-stalks grow to a height of six, ten, or 

 even fourteen inches, and are branched, and spiked 



