2i6 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



in the Alps ; often abundant and in large clusters in the sub-alpine 

 zone and above. April to July. 



Distribution.— Ca.Tpathia.ns, Alps, Erzgebirge, Jura, Black Forest, 

 Pyrenees, Caucasus, Central and Southern Europe, Western and 

 Northern Asia ; rare in British Isles. 



Geniiana bavarica L. Bavarian Gentian. 



Stem erect, simple, leafy, 2-5 inches high, i-flowered. Leaves 

 obovate or nearly spathulate, obtuse, sUghtly 3-nerved, crowded 

 except sometimes the uppermost ; imbricate in the young shoots. 

 Corolla saucer-shaped, 5-cleft, handsome, deep azure-blue, or very 

 rarely violet. 1 Lobes not fringed. Throat naked. Style deeply 

 5-cleft. 



Damp pastures, perferably on the higher calcareous Alps ; local, 

 but often in great masses ; 5000-8500 feet. June to September. 



Distribution. — Bavaria, Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, 

 Abruzzes. 



Gentiana pyrenaica L. Pyrenean Gentian. 



Stem ascending from a creeping base, 2-4 inches high, densely 

 leafy. Leaves small, linear-lanceolate, mucronate, rough at the 

 edges. Flowers a rich violet, solitary, shortly peduncled. Corolla- 

 lobes 10, unequal, 5 of which are oval, obtuse, and 5 are smaller 

 and toothed. Capsule elliptical. 



Damp pastures and banks of rivulets in the mountains at about 

 4000 to 6000 feet, but extending rarely to 9000 feet. June, July. 



Distribution. — Eastern Pyrenees, Central Pyrenees (rare), Spain, 

 Ariege, Aude ; Carpathians, Armenia, Caucasus. Not known in the 

 Alps. 



Gentiana nivalis L. 



Annual. Stem 1-6 inches high, erect, leafy, rather fragile ; 

 usually cymosely branched and many-flowered, less often simple 

 and i-fiowered. Leaves 3-5 nerved ; root-leaves ovate, in rosettes ; 

 stem-leaves lanceolate. Calyx cylindrical, with 5 prominent angles 

 and acute teeth. Corolla rotate, with a cylindrical tube, naked 

 throat and acuminate, unfringed teeth. Flowers small, blue, or 

 sometimes mauve, very rarely white, only opening in sunshine. 



Alpine meadows and pastures 5000-10,000 feet. June to Sep- 

 tember. 



Distribution. — Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, Jura, 

 Pyrenees, Carpathians, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Turkey, 

 Iceland, Scotland (rare). Central and Arctic Europe (Iceland), 

 Asia Minor, North America, Greenland. 



' Found by the writer with violet flowers near Bovine (Col de la Forclaz), 

 June, 1908. This was the first record. 



