656 GENTIANACEAE (GENTIAN FAMILY) 



old name, variously applied by the herbalists, from centum, hundred, and aurum, 

 gold or gold-piece, alluding, it is said, to the priceless medicinal value ; com- 

 pare the German vernacular name Tausendgilldenkraut.} ERITHREA Neck. 

 ERYTHRAEA Borkh. 



* Flowers in spikes. 



1. C. SPICATUM (L.) Fernald. Stem strictly upright, 1-4 dm. high ; the 

 flowers sessile and spiked along one side of the simple or rarely forked branches ; 

 leaves oval and oblong, rounded at base, acutish ; tube of the rose-colored or 

 whitish corolla scarcely longer than the calyx, the lobes oblong. (Erythraea 

 Pers.) Sandy coast, Nan tucket, Mass., and Portsmouth, Va. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers in cymes or panicles. 

 i- Flowers in definite terminal cymes, at least the central flower sessile. 



2. C. UMBELLATUM Gilib. (CENTAURY.) Stem upright, 1-5 dm. high, corym- 

 bosely branched above ; leaves oblong or elliptical, acutish, the basal rosulate, 

 the uppermost linear ; cymes clustered, flat-topped, the flowers all nearly sessile ; 

 tube of the purple-rose-colored corolla not twice the length of the oval lobes. 

 (Erythraea Centaurium Pers.) Waste grounds, N. S.; Mass, to Ind. and Mich, 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



t- Flowers loosely paniculate or paniculate-cymose, all pedicel'ed. 

 w Corolla-lobes 3-5 mm. long ; anthers oblong. 



3. C. PULCHELLUM (Sw.) Druce. Low (0.5-3 dm. high); stem, many times 

 forked above and forming a diffuse cyme; leaves ovate-oblong or oval, not rosu- 

 late below ; pedicels shorter than the calyx; tube of the pink-purple corolla 

 thrice the length of the elliptical-oblong lobes. (Erythraea ramosissima Pers.) 



Wet or shady places, N. Y. to 111., and south w. (Nat. from Eu.) 



4. C. texSnse (Griseb.) Fernald. Similar to the preceding, but more diffusely 

 forked ; cauline leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, the upper reduced to subulate 

 bracts ; pedicels equaling or exceeding the calyx ; corolla-tube twice the length of 

 the lance-oblong lobes. (Erythraea Griseb.) Dry soil, Mo. to Tex. 



-t-t- -w- Corolla-lobes 7-10 mm. long ; anthers linear. 



5. C. calycbsum (Buckley) Fernald. Simple or corymbose-branched, 1-6 dm. 

 high ; leaves oblong to lance-linear ; pedicels equaling or exceeding the calyx ; 

 corolla-tube nearly equaled by the oblong or oval lobes. (Erythraea Buckley.) 



Damp soil, Mo. to Tex. 



3. GENTlANA [Tourn.] L. GENTIAN 



Corolla 4-5-lobed, usually with intermediate plaited folds, which bear ap- 

 pendages or teeth at the sinuses. Stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla. 

 Style short or none ; stigmas 2, persistent. Capsule ellipsoid, 2-valved, the 

 innumerable seeds either borne on placentae at or near the sutures, or in most 

 of our species covering nearly the whole inner face of the pod. Flowers solitary 

 or cymose, showy, in late summer and autumn. (Name from G-entius, king of 

 Illyria, who according to Pliny discovered the plant, i.e. its medicinal virtue.) 



1. GENTIANELLA [Rupp.] Reichenb. Corolla (not rotate} destitute of ex- 

 tended plaits or lobes or teeth at the sinuses ; root annual or biennial. 



* Flowers large, solitary on long terminal peduncles, mostly 4-merous ; corolla 

 campanulute- funnel-form, its lobes usually flmbriate or erose, not crowned; 

 a row of glands between the bases of the filaments. 



1. G. crinita Froel. (FRINGED G.) Stem 1-9 dm. high ; leaves lanceolate 

 or ovate-lanceolate from a partly heart-shaped or rounded base ; lobes of the 

 4-cleft calyx unequal, ovate and lanceolate, as long as the bell-shaped tube of 

 the blue (rarely white) corolla (2.5-6 cm. long), the lobes of which are wedge- 

 obovate, and strongly fringed around the summit; ovary lanceolate. Low 

 grounds, centr. Me. and w. Que. to Dak., la., 0., and Ga. 



