2i 4 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Gentiana asdepiadea L. Willow Gentian. (Plate XXVI.) 



Root very long and tapering, sometimes 2 feet or more in length. 

 Stem erect, simple, 1-3 feet high, many-flowered, leafy except at 

 the base. Stem-leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 5-nerved, sessile, from a rounded base ; no root-leaves. Flowers 

 usually in clusters of 2-3 in the axils of the upper leaves, forming a 

 long terminal leafy, spicate cyme. Corolla campanulate, 5-cleft, 

 large (iJ-2 inches long), dark azure-blue or ultramarine, variegated 

 internally with white streaks and dark spots, throat naked. Corolla- 

 teeth not fringed, lanceolate, acuminate. Calyx tubular, with 5 

 very short linear teeth. Flowers rarely white. (See plate.) 



Bushy sub-alpine regions and stony Alpine pastures up to 6800 

 feet, especially on limestone ; a very handsome species. July to 

 September. 



Distribution. Carpathians, Erzgebirge, Eastern, Central, and 

 Western Alps ; Vosges, Jura, Corsica, Dalmatia, Bithynia, Greece, 

 Caucasus, Asia Minor. 



Gentiana alpina Vill. Prosp., p. 22 (G. acaulis L. part.). 



Stem very short. Root-leaves in small rosettes, small, leathery, 

 i-nerved, a pair of lanceolate stem-leaves often immediately below 

 the calyx. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, subacute, divided by a usually 

 sharp sinus. Corolla deep blue with greenish streaks, rarely white 

 or mauve, i-ij inches long, lobes rather obtuse and short. 



Grassy Alpine pastures up to 8500 feet, but not often seen in 

 the sub-Alps, and much less common than G. excisa. 



Distribution. Alps, Jura, Pyrenees, Spain, N. Italy. In Switzer- 

 land in the southern ranges only. 



On the type specimen of G. acaulis in the Linnaean herbarium 

 Linnaeus wrote, " Gentiana caule unifloro flore campanulato caulem 

 longitudine excedente." 



Gentiana excisa Presl. in Flora, 1828, p. 268 (G. Kochiana Perr. et 



Song., 1 1853). (Plate XXV.) 



Larger and taller than the last, with which Linnaeus combined 

 it and the next to form G. acaulis L. Stem 2-4 inches high, erect, 

 with a pair of small, lanceolate leaves lower in the stem ; stem 

 much elongated on maturity. Leaves larger and softer than in 

 G. alpina, but very variable in shape and size. Calyx-lobes oval- 

 lanceolate, from a narrow base, contracted, shorter and broader 

 than in the last and spreading ; sinus between calyx-lobes truncate, 

 the membrane connecting the divisions of the calyx more developed. 

 Corolla ij-2j inches long, campanulate, deep blue, spotted or 

 streaked with green within and often of a duller or purplish blue, 

 very rarely white or violet. Corolla-lobes large, toothed, and 

 deflexed. 



1 Perrier et Songer, PI. nouv. Savoie (1853), p. 53- 



