192 GENTIANACEAE. 



Family 70. GENTIANACEAE. Gentian Family. 



Mostly herbs; leaves entire, opposite, sessile, without stipules; 

 flowers perfect, regular, solitary or clustered; corolla gamo- 

 petalous, 4^12-parted; stamens as many as the corolla-lobes and 

 alternate with them, epipetalous; ovary 1 -celled, with 2 parietal 

 placentae; fruit a capsule, usually 2-valved; seeds numerous; 

 endosperm copious. 



Style filiform, usually deciduous; anthers oblong to 



linear, mostly twisting or curving with age. 283. Centaurion, 192. 



Style stout and persistent or none; anthers remaining 

 straight. 

 Corolla funnelform or bell-shaped, without glands. 284. Gentiana, 192. 

 Corolla rotate, with a fringed glandular spot on 

 each lobe. 285. Frasera, 193. 



283. CENTAURION. 



Low branching annual herbs; leaves sessile or clasping; flowers 

 white or reddish; calyx 4- or 5-parted; corolla funnel or salver- 

 form, 4- or 5-parted, the tube slender; anthers exserted, erect, 

 oblong to linear, twisting spirally with age ; style filiform, usually 

 deciduous; stigmas capitate or 2-lipped. 



Centaurion muehlenbergii (Griseb.) W. F. Wight. Annual, erect, simple 

 or with many erect branches, 10-20 cm. high, glabrous, flowering almost from 

 the base; leaves oblong or ovate, obtuse; flowers white, rarely pink, about 1 

 cm. long, mostly sessile, in leafy cymes; corolla-tube longer than the calyx, 

 its spreading lobes short, obtuse. Springy places, rare. 



284. GENTIANA. Gentian. 



Herbs; leaves opposite; flowers solitary or in cymes, showy, in 

 late summer or autumn ; calyx 4- or 5-cleft ; corolla funnelform or 

 bell-shaped, 4- or 5-lobed, regular, without glands, often with inter- 

 mediate plaited folds which bear appendages at the sinuses; 

 anthers remaining straight with age; style stout, persistent or 

 none; stigmas 2. 



Annual; corolla without appendages in the sinuses. G. acuta. 

 Perennial; corolla with appendages in the sinuses. 



Calyx-lobes oblong to ovate-lanceolate. G. oregana. 



Calyx-lobes linear to narrowly lanceolate. G. affinis. 



Gentiana acuta Michx. Annual, erect, simple, or with few erect branches, 

 glabrous, 5-40 cm. high; leaves rather few, the basal spatulate-oblanceolate, 

 obtuse, petioled; cauline oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, sessile, 5-30 mm. 

 long; peduncles from the axils of most of the leaves, 1-4 cm. long; calyx cleft 

 below the middle, the lobes acute, usually very unequal; corolla 5-15 mm. long, 

 without folds in the sinuses, the acutish lobes with a fringe of bristles on their 

 bases within. Open woods, in the mountains. 



