220 FAMILIES OF FLOWERING PLANTS 
Fig. 189. The Paintroot (Spigelia Marylandica) one-half natural size. Original. 
celled, instead of 2-celled, ovary. There are about 65 genera and 600 
species in this family, and they are very widely distributed. The plants 
are mostly glabrous herbs, possessing bitter properties, many of them 
valuable in the pharmacopoeia. The corolla is frequently persistent 
after withering ; it is succeeded by a 2-valved capsule. 
The genus Gentiana embraces a large number of species, differing 
widely in habit and in the color of their flowers. Many of them are 
hatives of alpine or mountainous regions, with flowers of great size and 
beauty in proportion to the size of the plant. In the United States, two 
of the most beautiful species are the western fringed gentian (G. elegans 
Greene) and the pine-barren gentian (G. Porphyrio), the latter being par- 
ticularly abundant throughout southern New Jersey (Fig. 190). In the 
southern States the gentians are mostly replaced by species of Sabbatia, 
which have pretty white or pink flowers. 
_ Family Menyanthaceae. Buckbean Family. These are perennial 
or marsh herbs, formerly included in the Gentianaceae, but now sepa- 
