POPULAR FLORA. 187 



69. GENTIAN FAMILY. Order GENTIANACEiE. 



Smooth herbs with a colorless bitter juice ; the leaves, with two exceptions, opposite, 

 sessile, and entire ; the regular flowers having as many stamens as there are lobes to the 

 corolla, and alternate with them ; stigmas or branches of the style 2 ; pod one-celled, with 

 many and usually very small seeds on the walls, usually in two lines. — Tonic, generally 

 very bitter plants : none of them poisonous. Flowers commonly large and handsome. 



Leaves simple, opposite and sessile. Corolla with the lobes convolute, i. c. each with one 

 edge in and one out, in the bud. 

 Corolla wheel-shaped, B- to 12-parted, white or pink, in cymes. Style 2-parted. 

 (Two or three handsome-flowered species in salt marshes, and one or two 

 on river-banks, &c., especially South), {Sabbdtia) Sabbatia. 



Corolla funnel-form or bell-shaped, commonly blue. Style very short or none : stig- 

 mas 2, broad, ( Gentiana) Gentian. 



Leaves simple, alternate or all from the root, round-heart-shaped, floating on the water, 

 with very long footstalks, which bear near their summit a cluster of small 

 white flowers, along with some spur-shaped bodies. Corolla 5-parted, the 

 lobes folded inwards in the bud, {Limndnthemum) Floating-Heabt. 



Leaves with 3 oblong leaflets ; footstalks long, alternate, their base sheathing the thickish 

 rootstock or the lower part of a scape, which bears a raceme of white 

 flowers. Corolla 5-parted, the lobes white-bearded inside, their edges 

 turned inwards in the bud. One species, in bogs, ( MenydiUhes) Buckbean. 



Gentian. Gentiana, 

 * Stamens separate; no plaits or fringes between the lobes of the corolla. 



1. FiVE-FLOWERED Gentian. Slender, branching; leaves lance-ovate; branches about 5-flowerftd; 



corolla light blue, hardly 1' long, with 5 pointed naked lobes. Fl. late summer and autumn ; as do 

 aU the species. G. quinquefldra. 



2. Fringed G. Leaves lance-shaped or lance-ovate; flowers single on a long naked stalk; corolla 



2' long, sky-blue, with 4 obovate beautifully fringed lobes. Low grounds. G. crinita. 



* * Anthers cohering with each other more or less ; corolla with B plaited folds. 



3. Closed G. Stout, leafy to the top, the flowers in sessile clusters, terminal and in the axils of the 



upper lance-oblong leaves ; corolla pale blue or purplish, rather club-shaped, with the mouth con- 

 tracted, and with 5 fringe-txmthed plaits, the lobes hardly any. G. Andrewiii. 



4. Soapwort G. The light blue corolla more open and bell-shaped, its lobes short and broad, but 



longer than the intervening plaits; otherwise much as No. 3. S. and W. G. Saponaria. 



6. Whitish G. Leaves lance-ovate with a heart-shaped clasping base ; corolla dull white or yellowish. 



with lobes longer than the plaits. S. and W. G. alba. 



70. DOGBANE FAMILY. Order APOCTNACE^. 



Plants with a milky and acrid juice, a tough inner bark, generally opposite and entire 

 leaves, and regular flowers : corolla 5-lobed, the lobes convoltUe in the bud (one edge in, 

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