(frnli.n,,,. ( J KNTI A N AC'K J-). 481 



3. GENTIANA, I.iun. Okntian. 



Calyx 4 - 5-cleft or toothed. Corolla 4 - 5-lobed, funnclforin, campanulate, or 

 sometimes salverform, often with plaited and toothed folds in the sinuses, withering- 

 persistent. Stamens included : anthers sometimes cohering in a ring or tube. 

 Style none or A'ery short : stigmas 2, thin and flat, persistent. Capsule septicidal. 

 Seeds very numerous and small, sometimes lining the whole wall of the capsule ; 

 the coat usually but not always loose. — Herbs; with bitter roots, opposite loaves, 

 and terminal or clustered flowers, usually showy, appearing in summer or nutumii. 



Tho typicnl and tlio largest goniis of llio family, coinnilsliig 150 Hpocios, widely <listrlliuloil over 

 the cooler regions of the world, moderately represented in Oregon anil the Hoeky Mountains, aa 

 well as in the Atlantic .States ; but few reach Calironiia, and those are scarce and confined to the 

 Sierra Nevada or to the northern part of the State. 



§ 1. No plaited folds in the sinuses of the corolla: anthers versatile: root in ours 

 annual, or rarely biennial. — Gentian ella. 



* Flowers small : corolla nearly salvershaped, crowned with afrinr/e of bristles on the 



base of the lobes within. 



1. Gr. Amarella, Linn., var. acuta, Engelm. From a span to a foot or more in 

 height, slender, simple or paniculately branching : leaves thin ; the larger an inch 

 long and oblongdanceolate ; the lowest obovato or spatulate; uppermost ovatedan- 

 ceolate : flowers in axillary and terminal clusters, or rarely solitary, forming a narrow 

 panicle : corolla light blue, a quarter to half an inch long ; its 5 short lobes from 

 ovate to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or becoming acute. — G. acuta, Michx., &c. 



In the Siena Nevada, from Mariposa Co. northward, at 5,000 feet and over ; tlience far north- 

 ward and eastward, running into various fomis. 



* * Flowers large for the size of the plant ; the parts usually in fours : corolla desti- 

 tute of fringe across the base of the lobes, but their edges sometimes fringed : a row 

 of glands between the bases of the f laments : capsule stipitate. 



2. Gr. simplex, C! ray. Stem 2 to 10 inches high from a small ami slender 

 annual root, simple, bearing 2 to 4 pairs of lanceolate or linear-oblong leaves (4 to 9 

 linos long) and a single slcndor-pedunculatn llower : corolla blue, 1 to 1^ inches 

 long ; the oblong-spatulato lobes entire or erose-toothed, or mrely with a few bristly 

 teeth low down on the sides : seeds smooth but longitudinally stiiato, narrow, wing- 

 less when mature, but somewhat cellular-appendaged at each end. — Pacif. \i. Rep. 

 V. 87, t. 16. 11 o F 



Higher parts of the Sierra Nevada, in wet groiuid, from Placer Co. at 8,000 feet (Brctocr), above 

 Sununit (E. L. Greene), and Siei la Co. (Lcnwwii) to Klamath bake in Orcgoji, Newberry, lietween 

 G. harhellata, Engelm., of the Colorado liooky Mountains (which is ])crennial), and depauperate 

 forms of tlio next ; but tlio seeds very different, wlien mature not wiuf;od, however, as represented 

 in tlio figure above cited : tliey are lanceolate in outline, the nueleus coarsely striate, produced 

 into a tliickish cellular base, and at the other end into a more subulate empty tip. 



3. G. serrata. Gunner. Stem 3 to 18 inches high from a slender annual root, 

 simple or the larger plants branched from the base, bearing iow or several pairs of 

 lanceolate or linear leaves, all narrow at base or the lowest oblanceolate, and termi- 

 nated by a long and naked one-flowered peduncle : corolla light blue, mostly an 

 inch and a half long; the oblong or spatulate-obovate h.bos commonly erosely 

 toothed around the summit and often fringed down the sides : seeils oval, wingless, 

 the close coat rough with minute ])rojecting scales. — (Fl. Dan. t. 317) Fl. Norveg. 

 101, t. 2, lig. 3-5 (17GG); Fries, Summ. Scand. 190. G. detonsa, IJottb. Act. 

 llafn. X. 254, t. 1, llg. 3 ; Grisebnch, Gent, k in Hook. Fl. ii. 04, Sec. G. brachy- 

 petala, Bungo, Consp. Gent. 225, t. 11, fig. 3. 



Var. holopetala, Gray. Lobes of the corolla rather bmail and short, entire or 

 obscurely erose-denticiilato round the summit : seeds a.s in the fringed form. 



