384 GENTIANACEJE. (GENTIAN FAMILY.) 



ORDER 77. GENTIANACE.E. (GENTIAN FAMILY.) 



Smooth herbs, with a colorless bitter juice, opposite and sessile entire and 

 simple leaves (except in Tribe II.) without stipules, regular Jlowers with the 

 stamens as many as the lobes of the corolla, which are convolute (rarely im- 

 bricated and sometimes valvate) in the bud, a 1-celled ovary with 2 parietal 

 placenta, or nearly the whole inner face of the ovary ovuliferous ; the fruit 

 usually a 2-valved and septicidal many-seeded pod. Flowers solitary or 

 cymose. Calyx persistent. Corolla mostly withering-persistent ; the 

 stamens inserted on its tube. Seeds anatropous, with a minute embryo 

 in fleshy albumen. (Bitter-tonic plants.) 



Tribe I. GENTIANEJE. Lobes of the corolla convolute in the bud (with the sinuses 

 mostly plaited), or in Obolaria imbricated. Leaves almost always opposite or whorled, en- 

 tire, those of the stem sessile. Seeds very small and numerous, with a cellular coat ; in 

 Obolaria, Bartonia, and several Gentians, the ovules and seeds covering the whole face of 

 the pericarp ! 



* Style distinct and slender, deciduous. 



1. Sabbatia. Corolla wheel-shaped, 5-12-parted : anthers at length recurved. 



2. Ery tlirsea. Corolla funnel-form or salver-shaped, 4 - 5-cleft : anthers soon spiral. 



* * Style (if any) and stigmas persistent : anthers straight. 



3. Fra sera. Corolla 4-parted, wheel-shaped 5 a fringed glandular spot on each lobe. 



4. Hal en ia. Corolla 4 - 5-cleft, bell-shaped, and 4 - 5-spurred at the base. 



5. Gentiana. Corolla funnel- or bell-shaped, mostly plaited in the sinuses, not spurred. 



6. Bartonia. Corolla deeply 4-cleft, bell-shaped -. no plaits. Calyx 4-parted. 



7. Obolaria. Corolla tubular-bell-shaped, 4-lobed, with no plaits, the lobes imbricated in 



the bud ! Calyx 2-leaved. 



Tribe II. MENYANTHE.3E. Lobes of the corolla valvate in the bud, with the edges 

 turned inwards. Stem-leaves alternate, petioled. Seed-coat hard or bony. 



8. Menynutb.es. Corolla bearded inside. Leaves 3-foliolate. 



9. Limnaiithemum. Corolla naked or bearded on the margins only. Leaves simple, 



rounded. 



1. SABBATIA, Adans. AMERICAN CENTAURY. 



Calyx 5-12-parted, the divisions slender. Corolla 5-12-parted, wheel- 

 shaped. Stamens 5-12: anthers soon recurved. Style 2-parted, slender. 

 Biennials or annuals, with slender stems, and cymose-panicled handsome (white 

 or rose-purple) flowers ; in summer. (Dedicated to L. Sabbati, an early Italian 

 botanist. ) 



* Corolla 5-parted, or rarely 6 - 7 -parted. 

 - Corolla white, often turning yellowish in drying: cymes corymbed, many-flowered. 



1. S. paniCUlata, Pursh. Stem brachiateJy much-branched (l-2 high), 

 rather terete, but angled with 4 sharp lines ; leaves linear or the loivtr oblong, ob- 

 tuse, \-nerved, nearly equalling the internodes ; calyx-lobes linear-thread-form, 

 much shorter than the corolla. Low grounds, Virginia and southward. 



2. S. lanceolata, Torr. & Gr. Stem simple (l-3 high) bearing a flat- 

 topped cyme ; leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 3-nerved, the upper acute, much 

 shorter than the internodes ; calyx-lobes longer and flowers larger than in 



