THE GENTIAN FAMILY. 427 



sile, bluntly pointed or rounded at the apex, entire, three-nerved, glabrous on both 

 sides ; thin. Stent : one-half foot high, branching, ascending mostly simple. 



Year after year faithfully and without hesitation we may seek, through 

 marshes or dry woodland soil, some known haunt of this exquisite Mower 

 and find it rearing its head as sincerely and gayly as it, perhaps, has done 

 since the beginning of things. It is, however, not a common one of the 

 genus, its range being considerably restricted. But its flowers are, of all 

 lovely sabbatias, among the largest and most luxuriantly beautiful ; the num- 

 erous petals of translucent texture having often an air quite as though they 

 had been bred in a greenhouse. It was in commemoration of Dr. I'.oykin 

 that the plant received its name. 



S. aiigiistifblia, narrow-leaved sabbatia, appeals to us as being also an 

 exquisite species which extends northward as far as North Carolina. While 

 its blossoms are not large, the plant sends them out very abundantly in both 

 lateral and terminal cymes ; and to the corolla of five or sometimes six rose- 

 pink petals there is a lively look given by its greenish yellow eye and cir- 

 cling anthers. More than one-half as long as the petals are the linear calyx- 

 lobes. The leaves, W'hich are sessile and linear-lanceolate, or oblong, 

 become small, almost bract-like, as they approach the flower. 



S. gentianoides, an inhabitant mostly of pine-barrens through the low 

 country, grows sometimes as high as two feet. Of a deep shade of magenta, 

 even down to the bases, are its large flowers, while their straight and deep 

 yellow anthers are almost a quarter of an inch long. The calyx-lobes 

 moreover are deeply cleft. Near the flower the sessile stem-leaves appear 

 as bracts gradually increasing in size down the stem. At the base of the 

 plant is also a small tuft of lanceolate or oblong leaves. 



S. stellaris, sea or marsh pink, the familiarly known member of the genus, 

 extends from Florida along the coast as far northward as Maine. Locally 

 it is much beloved, and called the rose of Plymouth in accordance with the 

 tradition that there the pilgrims first beheld it on the Sabbath day. It has 

 a quaint expression, a starry eye, usually a pink corolla and calyx-segments 

 shorter than, or nearly as long as, the petals. 



S. dodecdndra, large marsh pink, flourishes near the coast and from July 

 until September unfolds its most beautiful flowers. They are large and 

 solitary, at the ends of the peduncles or branches, either deep crimson-pink, 

 or white delicately bordered with pink, and have from eight to twelve nar- 

 rowly oblong petals marked at their bases with yellow. The calyx-lobes are 

 narrowly linear and often over half-an-inch long. That the plant's range is 

 extended gives many an opportunity to search for its blossoms either in wet 

 pine-barrens or by the sandy borders of salt marshes. 



S. FJliottii, Elliott's sabbatia, {Plate CXLI) with its many pure white 



