6S6 GENTIANACEAB (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 Tausendguldenkraut.) Erithrea Neck. 

 Erythraea Borkli. 



* Flowers in spikes. 



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

 floioers 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, Nantucket, Mass., and Portsmouth, Va. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers in cymes or panicles. 



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



2. C. umbellXtum 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-rosc-colored corolla not twice the length of the oval lobes. 

 (Fin/thraea Centaurium Pers.) — Waste grounds, N. S.; Mass. to Ind. and Mich. 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



•t- -1- Flowers loosely paniculate or paniculate-cymose, all pediceled. 



•M. Corolla-lobes 3-5 mm. long ; anthers oblong. 



3. C. puLCFiELLUM (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. texense (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. 



•M. ++ Corolla-lobes 7-10 mm. long ; anthers linear. 



b. C. calyc5sum (Buckley) Fernald. Simple or corymbose-branched, 1-0 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. GENTIAnA [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 Gentius, king of 

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



§ 1. GENTIANELLA [Rupp.] Eeichenb. 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-meroMs; corolla 



campanulute- funnel-form, its lobes usually fimbriate 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. — Lev 

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



