GENTIAN FAMILY 



GENTIANACEAE 



FRINGED GENTIAN 



Gentiana crinita Froel. 



The Fringed Genetian has been exterminated in many places 

 and has become very rare in others, but is still found occasionally 

 on low grounds in the northern part of the state, particularly in 



the northeast. The rare 

 beauty of the sky-blue 

 flowers makes the plant 

 much sought for by 

 thoughtless people, who do 

 not understand that picking 

 the flowers may destroy it. 

 Its range is from central 

 Maine and Quebec, south 

 to Georgia, Ohio and Iowa. 



The plant blooms in 

 late summer and autumn. 

 It is not a perennial and 

 must therefore depend upon 

 seed for its perpetuation. 

 The fringed borders of the 

 4 blue corolla lobes give the 

 flower its name. The calyx 

 is also 4-lobed and its parts 

 are somewhat unequal. The 

 4 stamens are attached to 

 the tube of the corolla, al- 

 ternating with its lobes, and 

 between their filaments at 

 the base is a row oi glands. 

 The pistil consists of a i-celled ovary and i stigmas. The fruit 

 is a capusle containing many small rough seeds. 



A Fringed Gentian, Gentiana affinis Griseb., very similar, grows 

 in the Rocky mountains, but it is darker purple-blue. 



The White Gentian, Gentiana flavida Gray, is the only eastern 

 species that is not blue. Its generally unbranched stem grows i-2 

 feet high in thickets and open woodlands scattered throughout 

 Illinois, but not commonly. Its creamy white flowers, about an 

 inch across, are clustered at the top and occasionally in the upper 

 axils. This species is frequently mistaken for a white-flowered form 

 of the Closed Gentian, page 237. 



236 



