GENTIANACEJE. 365 



Leaves opposite. Terrestrial plants. 

 Stamens and divisions of the corolla 4. 



Flowers very small, yellow 1. ClCEtfDiA. 



Flowers rather large, blue Field Gentian. 



Stamens and divisions of the corolla 5 (sometimes with 5 additional 

 smaller lobes). 

 Flowers pink or red. Calyx divided to the base. Style deci- 



'luous 2. EBTTHBiEA. 



Flowers blue. Calyx not divided below the middle. Style re- 

 maining long after the flowering is over 3. Gentian. 



Stamens and divisions of the corolla usually 8. Corolla yellow, 



f'tate 4. Chloea. 



Leaves alternate. Water plants. 



Leaves entire, orbicular. Flowers yellow 6. Limnanth. 



Leaves with 3 leaflets. Flowers white, fringed within 5. BncKBEAif, 



I. CICENDIA. CICENDIA. 



Very small annuals, differing from Gentian in their deciduous style, and 

 from E)-ythrcea in the short, broad tube of the corolla, with the parts of the 

 flowers in fours instead of fives. The few species are aU European. 



Stems simple or with few erect branches. Calyx-teeth broad and 



short 1. Slender C. 



Stems much branched. Calyx-segments linear 2. Dwarf C, 



1. Slender Cicendia. Cicendia filiformis, Eeichb. 

 {Exacum fiUforme, Eng. Bot. t. 235.) 



A slender annual, about 2 inches high, with a few pairs of small, narrow 

 leaves, chiefly near the base of the stem, and either simple and 1-flowered 

 or divided into 2 or 3 branches, each with a single small yellow flower. 

 Calyx campanulate, witli 4 broad, short lobes ; limb of the corolla also 4- 

 cleft. Capsule globular, 1-celled. 



In moist, sandy situations, common in western France and Spain, ex- 

 tending northward to Denmark, and eastward in southern Europe to Sicily 

 and some other parts of tlie Mediterranean. In Britain, only in the south- 

 western counties of England. Fl. summer. 



2. Hwaxt Cicendia. Cicendia pusilla, Griseb. 



(C Candollii, Bab. Man.) 



Usually a stiU smaller plant than the slender C, and much more branched 

 but chiefly distinguished by its pink, wliite, or pale yellow flowers, with the 

 calyx divided to the base into narrow segments, instead of the short, broad 

 teeth of the slender C. 



In moist, sandy situations, in Prance, Spain, and here and there in the 

 west Mediterranean region, and has been found in Guernsey by Captain 

 GosseUn (Bab. Man.). Fl. summer. 



II. ERVTHR.a:A. EETTHE^A. 



Annuals, with pink, or, in some exotic species, pale yellow flowers, difler- 

 ing from Gentian by their more deeply divided calyx, their deciduous style, 

 their anthers, which become more or less spirally twisted after shedding 

 their pollen, and by the capsule in which the seed-bearing edges of the 

 valves meet in the centre, so as to divide it more completely into 2''ceU3 than 

 m most others of the family. 



2 la 



