GENTIANACEJE. G5 



sunshine, rose varying to white, rarely yellow, generally in ter- 

 minal dichotoruous cymes or fascicles. 



The name of this genus of plants is said to have reference to the red colour of the 

 flowers, from covOpog (e)iUhros), red. 



SPECIES I— ERTTHR^A LATIFOLIA. Sm. 

 Plate DCCCCVII 



Stem short, very stout, straight, or the lateral ones curved. 

 Radical leaves roundish-oval, obtuse ; stem-leaves oval-ovate, sub- 

 acute, all 5- to 7-nerved. Flowers in compact head-like fasciculate 

 cymes, all sessile, the lateral flowers of each fork of the cyme 

 with 2 bracts close to the base of the calyx. Calyx-segments 

 short, lanceolate-triangular. Corolla-tube scarcely longer than the 

 segments of the calyx ; limb of 5 lanceolate, obtuse segments, 

 rather shorter than the tube. Capsule oblong -cylindrical, 

 gradually narrowed upwards, scarcely longer than the calyx- 

 segments. Plant wholly glabrous, calyx and margins of the 

 leaves not puberulent. 



On sandy ground near the sea. Very local. Sand-hills near 

 Aisdale, three miles south of Southport (Mr. F. M. "Webb) ; Sea- 

 forth Common, north of Liverpool (Mr. Fisher) ; and Bootle, 

 Lancashire (Mr. Bowman). 



England. Annual (?) or biennial. Late Summer. 



Stem 2 to 4 inches high, solitary or with 2 or more lateral 

 stems from the crown of the root, each of these usually simple 

 below, with ascending-spreading branches from the axils of one 

 or two of the upper pairs of leaves, each branch terminated by a 

 dense fasciculate cyme of small flowers, while there is a larger one 

 at the termination of the main stem, which is usually confluent with 

 those of the uppermost pah of branches. Flowers pink. Corolla- 

 tube £ inch long when full grown ; the limb concave, and about 

 as much across. 



This plant seems to be much misunderstood by British 

 Botanists, although well described by Smith, in whose Herbarium 

 there are specimens from near Liverpool. The E. latifolia figured 

 in Eng. Bot. Sup. No. 2719, is evidently a broad-leaved stunted 

 form of E. Centaurium, and all the British specimens labelled E. lati- 

 folia which I have seen (except those noted above) belong to the 

 broad-leaved form of the common species. Griesbach, in D. C. 

 Prod., and Grenier, in the PL de France, appear to be well acquainted 



VOL. VI. K 



