214 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Gentiana asclepiadea L. Willow Geritian. (Plate XXVI.) 



Root very long and tapering, sometimes 2 feet or more in length. 

 Stem erect, simple, 1-3 feet high, many-flowered, leafy except at 

 the base. Stem-leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 5-nerved, sessile, from a rounded base ; no root-leaves. Flowers 

 usually in clusters of 2-3 in the axils of the upper leaves, forming a 

 long terminal leafy, spicate cyme. Corolla campanulate, 5-cleft, 

 large (1^2 inches long), dark azure-blue or ultramarine, variegated 

 internally with white streaks and dark spots, throat naked. Corolla- 

 teeth not fringed, lanceolate, acuminate. Calyx tubular, with 5 

 very short linear teeth. Flowers rarely white. (See plate.) 



Bushy sub-alpine regions and stony Alpine pastures up to 6800 

 feet, especially on limestone ; a very handsome species. July to 

 September. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Erzgebirge, Eastern, Central, and 

 Western Alps ; Vosges, Jura, Corsica, Dalmatia, Bith3mia, Greece, 

 Caucasus, Asia Minor. 



Gentiana alpina Vill. Prosp., p. 22 (G. acaulis L. part.). 



Stem very short. Root-leaves in small rosettes, small, leathery, 

 i-nerved, a pair of lanceolate stem-leaves often immediately below 

 the calyx. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, subacute, divided by a usually 

 sharp sinus. Corolla deep blue with greenish streaks, rarely white 

 or mauve, i-i^ inches long, lobes rather obtuse and short. 



Grassy Alpine pastures up to 8500 feet, but not often seen in 

 the sub-Alps, and much less common than G. excisa. 



Distribution. — Alps, Jura, Pyrenees, Spain, N. Italy. In Switzer- 

 land in the southern ranges only. 



On the type specimen of G. acaulis in the Linnaean herbarium 

 Linnaeus wrote, " Gentiana caule unifloro flore campanulato caulem 

 longitudine excedente." 



Gentiana excisa Presl. in Flora, 1828, p. 268 (G. Kochiana Perr. et 

 Song.,1 1853). (Plate XXV.) 

 Larger and taller than the last, with which Linnaeus combined 

 it and the next to form G. acaulis L. Stem 2-4 inches high, erect, 

 with a pair of small, lanceolate leaves lower in the stem ; stem 

 much elongated on maturity. Leaves larger and softer than in 

 G. alpina, but very variable in shape and size. Calyx-lobes oval- 

 lanceolate, from a narrow base, contracted, shorter and broader 

 than in the last and spreading ; sinus between calyx-lobes truncate, 

 the membrane connecting the divisions of the calyx more developed. 

 Corolla 1^2^ inches long, campanulate, deep blue, spotted or 

 streaked with green within and often of a duller or purpHsh blue, 

 very rarely white or violet. Corolla-lobes large, toothed, and 

 deflexed. 



' Perrier et Songer, PI nouv. Savoie (1853), p. 53. 



