THE SPOTTED AND PURPLE GENTIANS 59 



The various contrivances which tend to close the 

 mouth of a tubular corolla, such as scales at the 

 throat, which we have noticed in discussing the blue- 

 flowered species, are all less primitive devices to keep 

 out unbidden guests, and adaptations in favour of 

 particular kinds of insect visitors. Whereas the 

 flowers of the Yellow Gentian are open to almost all 

 comers and the honey is not protected. A very 

 diff'ercnt state of affairs is met with in the Field 

 Gentian, as we have seen, where a long, narrow tube, 

 closed with scales at the mouth, must be penetrated 

 before the honey is reached. 



Again, the fact that in the Yellow Gentian the 

 anthers and stigmas ripen simultaneously, and not at 

 different periods, points to a greater degree of 

 primitiveness than that met with in the other species. 



The Spotted, Purple, and Hungarian Gentians. 

 The remaining Swiss Gentians with yellow and 

 red flowers possess many points of similarity in 

 habit to the Yellow Gentian. The Spotted Gentian 

 {Gentiana punctata, Linn.) (Plate XL) has yellow 

 flowers, ornamented with reddish-brown or purple 

 spots. The petals are all united to form a bell, and 

 the calyx is also bell-shaped, with five very dis- 

 similar teeth. The Purple Gentian {Gentiana purpurea, 

 Linn.) has also a bell-shaped corolla, red outside and 

 yellowish within, but the calyx is incompletely 

 united on one side. The Hungarian Gentian {Gentiana 

 pannonica, Scop.), which is less abundant in Switzer- 



