GENTIANACEvE-GENTIAN FAMILY 



FRINGED GENTIAN 



Centiana crinita. 

 An old name, from Gentius, king of lUyria. 



One of the most beautiful of native plants, growing in moist woods 

 and meadows, from Quebec to Minnesota and Georgia to Iowa. Biennial. 

 September, October. 



Stem. — One to two feet high, leafy; branches erect. 



Basal and lower leaves obovate, obtuse; the upper opposite, lanceolate, 

 sessile with a rounded or sub-cordate base, acute, entire; one and a half 

 to three inches long. 



Flowers. — ^Violet-blue, several, on long peduncles at the summit of the 

 stem. 



Calyx. — ^Tubular, four-lobed and four-angled; lobes acute and 

 imbricate in. bud. 



Corolla. — Narrow, bell-shaped, about two inches long, white below 

 and violet-blue above, deeply four-parted; lobes obovate, fringed, con- 

 volute in bud. 



Stamens. — Four, inserted on the tube of the corolla; filaments white, 

 dilated; anthers extrorse, pale-yellow. 



Ovary. — Spindle-shaped, an inch long, flattened; stigma square, two- 

 lobed. 



Capsule. — ^Many-seeded. 



To the exquisite beauty of the Fringed Gentian has been added 

 the charm of elusiveness, of a certain wilfulness of growth in its 

 wild haunts: "It was here — it was there — where is it now?" 



Two wild flowers, separated by the entire flowering season — the 

 trailing arbutus, a veritable incarnation of the spring, and the 

 Fringed Gentian, the attendant of the dying year — hold a unique 

 place in our affections. No others that I know, not even the blue 

 violet, has so touched the emotions and moved the imagination of 

 our people. One dares to invite the busiest man of affairs forth 



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