112 GENTIAISTACE^. Mkrocala. 



1. MICIl6CALA, Link. Compounded of fitxQO,; small, and x^Itj or x«io,-, 

 beautiful: should have been Microcalia, but that proper form of the name was 

 preoccupied. — One European species and the following : fl. in spring. 



M. quadrangularis, Griseb. A little annual, with simple or branching filiform stem, 

 2 or 3 inches high : branches or peduncles l-flowered : leaves 2 or -i pairs, oval or oblong, 

 2 or 3 lines long : calyx at first oblong-campanulate ; in fruit broader, truncate at top and 

 bottom, strongly 4-angled ; the teeth short and subulate : corolla saffron-yellow, 3 lines 

 long. — DC. Prodr. ix. 63; Progel in Mart. Fl. Bras. vi. 213, t, 58, fig. 3; Gray, Bot. Cahf. 

 i. 480. Exacum quadrangulare, Willd. Spec. i. 6.36. E. inflatam, Hook. & Arn. in Jour. Bot. 

 i. 283. Cicendia quadranyularis, Griseb. Gent. 157. — Open moist ground, coast of California, 

 from Mendocino Co., southward. (S. Amer.) 



2. EIlYTHR.iS]A, Renealm. Centaury, Canchalagua. (From sqv6q6s, 



red, the flowers being mostly red or rose-color.) — Low herbs (of various parts of 



the world), mainly annuals and biennials ; the flowers small or middle-sized, but 



commonly^qumeim^ msumingr. Corolla-lobes becoming narrower with age. 



E. CHiKONioiDES an3 E. fpEciosA, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 479, are Mexican species, not yet 

 found near our borders, forming a section (the genus Gyrandra of Grisebach) with tube of the 

 corolla rather shorter than the ample lobes, and an oval capsule. All our species have a 

 longer and narrower capsule (elongated-oblong or cylindraceous), and a longer tube to tlie 

 corolla. Our E. venusta, as to the corolla, is the connecting form. 



* Flowers spicately disposed along the rather simple branches and sessile in the few forks. 



B. spicAta, Pers. Strictly erect, a foot or less high: leaves oblong: tube of the rose-col- 

 ored corolla hardly longer than the calyx-lobes, twice the length of the rather narrow 

 lobes. — E. Pickeringii, Oakes in Hovey Mag. Chironia spicata. Smith, Fl. Grsec. t. 238. — 

 Coast at Nantucket, Mass. (Oakes), and Portsmouth, Virginia (Rurjel). (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers cymose or paniculatelr scattered; ours all rose-red, and with broad stigmas. 



•i— European species sparingly naturalized in the Atlantic United States : stigmas broadly oval 

 or obovate : lobes of the corolla oblong, obtuse. 



B. Centaukium, Pers. Strictly erect, a span to a foot high : leaves oblong, the lowest form- 

 ing a rosulate tuft at the root : fiowers cymose-clustered, at least tjie middle ones sessile : 

 lobes of the corolla 2^ or 3 lines long. — Waste grounds, shores of Lake Ontario (Oswego, 

 New York) and Lake Michigan, Bahcock: rare. (Nat. from Eu.) 



E. RAMOsfssiMA, Pers. Lower, more slender, diffusely branched : leaves from oval to lanceo- 

 late, the lowest not rosulate : flowers effusely cymose, pedicelled : lobes of the corolla only 

 2 lines long. — E.pulchella, Fries, Novit. ii. 31 (Grisebach's var. pw/cAe/Za, merely a small 

 form). E. Muhtenberr/ii, Griseb. in DC. Prodr. ix. 60, as to pi. N. Y. and Penn. Exacum pul- 

 chetlum, Pursh, Fl. i. 100? Chironia pulchella, Muhl. Cat. 23. — E. Pennsylvania, New Jer- 

 sey, &c. ; rare. ( Nat. from Eu. ) 



•i— -(^ Species indii^enous from Texas to California : stigmas cuneate or flabellifonn and truncate : 

 no rosulate tuft of radical leaves. 



++ Flowers small : lobes of the corolla only IJ to 2i lines long, much shorter than the tube: an- 

 thers oblong. 



B. Texensis, Griseb. Slender, diffusely much branched above into a loose paniculate- 

 corymbose cyme : leaves linear or the lowest lanceolate and the uppermost reduced to 

 subulate bracts; flowers all slender-pedicelled : corolla (apparently liglit rose-color) with 

 very slender tube (4 or 5 lines long), and lanceolate-oblong lobes (2 lines long), which be^ 

 come lanceolate-linear, longer, and acute : seeds globose-ovoid. — DC. I. c. 98. — Texas, 

 common on rocks and hills. 



B. floribunda, Benth. Almost a foot high, corymbose-cymose at summit, rather strict 

 and closely flowered : leaves oblong or the upper lanceolate : flowers short-pedicelled or in 

 the forks nearly sessile : lobes of the light rose-colored corolla oblong and becoming lan- 

 ceolate, at most 2 lines long and 3 or 4 times shorter than the tube : anthers short-oblong 

 (shorter than in any other of this section and the stigmas smaller) : seeds globular-ovoid. 

 — PI. Hartw. .322; Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 480. — California, on the Sacramento and its tribu- 

 taries, Hartweg, &c. 



B. Muhlenbergii, Griseb. A span or less high, at length fastigiately branched from 

 the base, cymosely flowered at summit : leaves oblong, obtuse ; the floral lanceolate : ped- 



