366 THE GEIfTIAK PAMILT. 



1. Common Erythrsea. Erythraea Centaurium, Ptrs. 

 {Chironia, Eng. Bot. t. 417. Centaury.) 



An erect annual, from an inch or two to a foot high, usually much 

 branched in the upper part. Lower leaves usually broadly ovate, foi-ming a 

 spreading radical tuft; the upper ones in distant pahs, varying from ovate or 

 oblong to narrow-linear. Flowers pink or red, usually numerous, in a ter- 

 minal, repeatedly-forked cyme or panicle. Calyx-segments 5, narrow-linear. 

 Corolla with a slender tube, and a spreading, 5-cleft lunb. 



In dry pastures, and sandy places, on banks, roadsides, etc. ; widely spread 

 over Europe and central Asia, extending northward to south Sweden. Com- 

 mon in Britain, excepting in the north of Scotland, where it is almost con- 

 fined to the coast. Fl. all summer. It varies much in the size and breadth 

 of the foliage and flowers, and has been subdivided into 2, 3, or even 6 or 7 

 supposed species, which however run into one another so much that no pre- 

 cise limits can be assigned them. The most prominent forms or varieties 

 in Britain are : 



a. Large-flowered JS. Tall, not much branched, with a compact cyme 

 and large flowers ; the tube of the coroUa long and the lobes ovate. 



b. Common E. (JE. pulchella, Brit. Fl.) More branched, vpith numer- 

 ous flowers ; the tube of the corolla not much longer than the calyx, and 

 the lobes of the limb narrow. 



c. Broad-leaved U. (Chironia pulchella, Eng. Bot. t. 458, and E. lati- 

 folia, Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2719.) Including aU the dwarf forms with rather 



large flowers and broad leaves. 



d. Linear E. {Chironia littoralis, Eng. Bot. t. 2305. E. linariifolia, 

 Brit. Fl.) 



Much branched, usually small, with very narrow leaves and rather large 

 flowers. The two last varieties are most frequent near tlie sea, where they 

 both, as well as the small-flowered varieties, will often dwindle down to a 

 simple stem half an inch higli, with a single flower. 



III. GENTIAN. GENTIAJSTA. 



Herbs, with opposite, entire leaves, and (in the British species) blue 

 flowers, either solitary and terminal or in pyramidal or oblong panicles, the 

 lower ones often axillary. Calyx tubular, oftea strongly angled, vrith 5, 

 rarely 4 lobes seldom reaching below the middle. Corolla with a cyhndrical 

 or narrow-campanulate tube, and spreading limb, divided into 5 or rarely 4 

 lobes, and occasionally 5 additional ones in the angles. Style remaining at- 

 tached to the capsule after the flower fades. Capsule 1-celled, the placentas 

 not meeting in the centre. 



A numerous genus, spread over the northern hemisphere, especially ia 

 mountainous districts, and in the higher ranges of both the new and old 

 world, penetrating into the tropics. One very common Swiss species, as 

 well as several other exotic ones, have yellow flowers, but blue is the prevail- 

 ing colour in the genus. 



Corolla fringed at the throat with long hairs. 



Calyx -lobes 4, two of them broadly ovate 5. Field O. 



Calyx-lobes 5, all narrow-lanceolate or linear 4. Autumn G. 



Corolla not fringed at the throat. 



Stem 6 inches to a foot high. Corolla-tube above an inch long ... 1. Mar»h O. 



