212 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



SWERTIA L. 



Swertia perennis L. 



Glabrous. Stem erect, 6-12 inches high, 4-edged, simple below 

 and bearing an elongated raceme. Leaves crowded at base of stem, 

 the upper ones opposite, entire, lanceolate, sessile ; lower ones 

 elliptical, running into the leaf-stalk. Angles of fiower-stalk nar- 

 rowly winged. Calyx-teeth and corolla segments lanceolate, 

 acuminate. Flowers dark, dingy purple. 



Boggy Alpine meadows and peat mosses and other wet places 

 on Alpine pastures ; 3000-6800 feet ; very local. July, August. 



Distribution. — Carpathians ; Riesengebirge ; Eastern, Central, 

 and Western Alps ; Jura, Black Forest ; North German plain, 

 Erzgebirge, Pyrenees, Central France, Caucasus. 



Gentiana L. 



Leaves opposite, entire. Flowers usually blue, but also purple, 

 mauve, yellow, and nearly white, solitary or in terminal cymes. 

 Calyx tubular, often angled, with 5 or rarely 4 lobes. Corolla 

 with a narrow campanulate tube and spreading limb divided into 

 5 or rarely 4 lobes, and occasionally 5 additional ones in the angles. 

 Style remaining attached to the capsule after the flower fades. 

 Stigmas 2. Capsule i-celled and 2-valved. 



A large genus, spread over the northern hemisphere, especially 

 in the mountains, and in the higher ranges of both New and Old 

 Worlds, penetrating into the tropics. 



Gentiana lutea L. Great YeUow Gentian. 



Glabrous. Stem erect, stout, 2-4 feet high. Root cylindrical, 

 thick, ringed. Leaves large, elliptical, strongly 5-nerved, the lower- 

 most stalked, channelled ; stem-leaves cordate, half-clasping. 

 Flowers yeUow with brown spots, in dense clusters or whorls, 

 corolla 5-cleft nearly to the base, the divisions being lanceolate, 

 acuminate. Calyx sheathing, deeply divided on one side. Root 

 used as a tonic. 



Grassy Alpine and sub-alpine pastures, descending to 800 metres 

 in the Jura. Often in colonies. July to September. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Alps, Vosges, Jura, Black Forest ; 

 Central and Southern Europe ; Asia Minor. 



Gentiana punctata L.* 



Stem about i foot high, erect, robust. Stem-leaves oval or 

 lanceolate sessile, nerved, the lower ones stalked. Flowers yellowish, 

 spotted with purple, brown, or grey, sessile in terminal clusters. 

 Corolla 6-cleft, the lobes a quarter the length of the tube, throat 

 naked. Calyx campanulate with erect, lanceolate, unequal teeth. 



' In the Linnsean Herbarium (at Burlington House) the specimen of G. punctata 

 is G. pannonica Freyn, according to Prof. Ascherson. 



