GENTIAN FAMILY. Gentianacese. 



GENTIAN FAMILY. Gentianaceo'. 



Smooth herbs with generally opposite leaves, toothless 



and stemless; Menyanihes and Limnanthemum are two 



exceptions to this rule. Flowers regular and perfect. 



the corolla with 4-12 lobes; alternating with these are a 



corresponding number of stamens. Fertilized mostly by 



the bees and the beelike flies. 



An erect and smooth annual naturalized 



esser from Europe, with several short branches 



Erythrie.a above, and elliptical or oblong light green 



Centaurium leaves, somewhat acute ; the uppermost 



Light magenta rather linear. The small tubular light 



une- magenta flowers five-lobed and very nearlv 



September ^^ , rr^, , ,* 



stemless. ihey are numerously borne at 



the summits of the branches. 6-12 inches high. Waste 



places and the shores of the Great Lakes, from Quebec 



to Illinois. The name Erythrcea is from the Greek. 



meaning red. The flowers are weak in color, and the 



plants are really more delicate than beautiful. 



„ „ A small species from Europe similar in 



Erythrcea '■ ,/..,, 



ramosissima many respects to the foregomg, but the 

 Magenta=pink stem very much branched, the leaves oval 

 June or long-ovate, the larger lower ones blunt. 



September ^j^^ upper small and acute. The flowers 



are magenta-pink, and, with few exceptions, distinctly 

 stemmed. The tube of the corolla is nearly twice as 

 long as the flve lobes of the calyx. 3-8 inches high. 

 Waste places or fields, wet or shady, from southern 

 N. Y. to east Pa. and Md. 



An erect and smooth annual naturalized 

 Spiked fj,Qj^^ ^l^g qJ^ country, with small, blunt, 



Erythrcea oblong, light green leaves ; the upper ones 



spicata rather acute, and all more or less close to 



Magenta=pink the generally forking stem. The very 

 small magenta-pink, or crimson-magenta 

 flowers tubular and five-lobed, stemless 

 and also close to the plant-stem, the tube of the corolla 

 a little longer than the calyx-lobes. 6-16 inches high. 

 Shores of F-^ntucket, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H. 



352 



