2i6 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



in the Alps ; often abundant and in large clusters in the sub-alpine 

 zone and above. April to July. 



Distribution. Carpathians, Alps, Erzgebirge, Jura, Black Forest, 

 Pyrenees, Caucasus, Central and Southern Europe, ' Western and 

 Northern Asia ; rare in British Isles. 



Gentiana bavarica L. Bavarian Gentian. 



Stem erect, simple, leafy, 2-5 inches high, i-flowered. Leaves 

 obovate or nearly spathulate, obtuse, slightly 3-nerved, crowded 

 except sometimes the uppermost ; imbricate in the young shoots. 

 Corolla saucer-shaped, 5-cleft, handsome, deep azure-blue, or very 

 rarely violet. 1 Lobes not fringed. Throat naked. Style deeply 

 5-cleft. 



Damp pastures, perferably on the higher calcareous Alps ; local, 

 but often in great masses ; 5000-8500 feet. June to September. 



Distribution. Bavaria, Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, 

 Abruzzes. 



Gentiana pyrenaica L. Pyrenean Gentian. 



Stem ascending from a creeping base, 2-4 inches high, densely 

 leafy. Leaves small, linear-lanceolate, mucronate, rough at the 

 edges. Flowers a rich violet, solitary, shortly peduncled. Corolla- 

 lobes 10, unequal, 5 of which are oval, obtuse, and 5 are smaller 

 and toothed. Capsule elliptical. 



Damp pastures and banks of rivulets in the mountains at about 

 4000 to 6000 feet, but extending rarely to 9000 feet. June, July. 



Distribution. Eastern Pyrenees, Central Pyrenees (rare), Spain, 

 Ariege, Aude ; Carpathians, Armenia, Caucasus. Not known in the 

 Alps. 



Gentiana nivalis L. 



Annual. Stem 1-6 inches high, erect, leafy, rather fragile ; 

 usually cymosely branched and many-flowered, less often simple 

 and i-flowered. Leaves 3-5 nerved ; root-leaves ovate, in rosettes ; 

 stem-leaves lanceolate. Calyx cylindrical, with 5 prominent angles 

 and acute teeth. Corolla rotate, with a cylindrical tube, naked 

 throat and acuminate, unfringed teeth. Flowers small, blue, or 

 sometimes mauve, very rarely white, only opening in sunshine. 



Alpine meadows and pastures 5000-10,000 feet. June to Sep- 

 tember. 



Distribution. Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, Jura, 

 Pyrenees, Carpathians, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Turkey, 

 Iceland, Scotland (rare), Central and Arctic Europe (Iceland), 

 Asia Minor, North America, Greenland. 



1 Found by the writer with violet flowers near Bovine (Col de la Forclaz), 

 June, 1908. This was the first record. 



