LXXXV. GBNTIANEiE. 705 



LXXXV. GENTIANEJ']. 



1. SEB^A Soland. ex R. Br. ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 804. 



1. S. brachyphylla Griseb. Gent. p. 170 (1839); Engl. Hochge- 

 Hrgsflora, p. 335 (1892) ; Gilgin Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xxvi. 100 (1898). 



HuiLLA. — In moist pastures throughout the district, very plentiful, 

 from Oct. to March ; near LopoUo at an elevation of 4500 to .5500 ft. ; 

 fl. and fr. Nov. and Dec. 1859 and Feb. 1860. No. 1620. Of. Coll. 

 Carp. 750. An annual herb, with the habit of a Centaurium and with 

 small yellow flowers. Lopollo in damp places ; seeds Feb. 1860. 

 Probably this species. Coll. Caep. 749. 



From a note attached to S. affinis, with which species Welwitsoh 

 had at one time associated this plant, it appears that the latter is a 

 powerfully bitter herb and was usually employed with very good 

 effect by the colonists in Huilla as a tonic, in lieu of Centaurium 

 umhellahim Gilib. which is not indigenous in Huilla. A decoction 

 prepared from this plant, together with Faroa salutaris, is a potent 

 restorative after fever ; its virtues were tested by Welwitsch. This 

 is probably the plant referred to by Welwitsch, Synopse Explic. p. 55, 

 n. 145, under the Portuguese name of " Fel da terra de flor amarella." 



2. S. Welwitschii Schinz in Vierteljahrsschrift Nat. Gessellsch. 

 in Ziirich, xxxvi. p. 321 (1891); and in Bull. Herb. Boiss. iv. 

 p. 443 (June 1896) ; GUg, I.e., p. 92. 



S. khasiana 0. B. 01. in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. iv. p. 99 (1883) 

 partly, not in Joiirn. Linn. Soc. xiv. p. 428 (1875). 



Huilla. — A parasitical, filiform, erect, 2^ to 6-flowered herb ; habit 

 of Centaurium ; stem simple or sparingly branched, quadrangular ; 

 leaves ovate-acuminate, connate at the base, rather rigid, distant, 

 opposite ; flowers yellow ; calyx deeply lobed ; the segments ovate- 

 lanceolate ; corolla-lobes lanceolate ; stamens inserted between the 

 corolla-lobes, exserted ; filaments in some flowers nearly straight, not 

 at all cvu'ved below the anthers ; anthers variable in shape, sometimes 

 long-spathulate or oblong-claviculate and longer than the style, in 

 other cases shortly spathulate, almost shorter than the style and 

 hollowed out with one side as it were arched. Parasitical among 

 grasses and on clumps of OyperaceK along the banks of the Monino 

 river in spongy or swampy places ; fl. and fr. Jan. 1860. No. 1521. 

 An annual, erect, lovely, little herb, scarcely 8 in. high ; habit almost 

 of Curtia tenella Cham. ; stems filiform, mostly shortly bent at the 

 base, promptly straightening, simple or with one branch above the 

 middle or trichotomous ; branches ascending 1- to 3-flowered ; leaves 

 minute, -^^ to i in. long, sub-connate at the base, ovate-lanceolate, 

 keeled, subulate at the apex, squamiform so that the stem seems 

 partly leafless, adpressed to the stem ; internodes about 1 (| to IJ) 

 in. long ; cymes 1- to 16-flowered ; flowers ebraoteolate, yellow, 

 mostly pentamerous, 4- to 6-merous ; 6- and 6-merous flowers teen on 

 the same specimen ; corolla salver-shaped ; the tube swelled at the 

 base, constricted below the limb ; the lobes ovate rather obtuse ; 

 stamens exserted ; anthers sub-sagittate at the base without glands at 

 the apex or with very small glands, but present only on one or two 

 of them, at length spirally twisted ; style straight, filiform, exceeding 

 the stamens ; stigma globose- caespitate, pileiform, widely hollowed at 

 the base and there obtusely bilobed ; capsule 2-celled ; placentation 

 free, 4-lobed ; seeds oblong-subquadrate, various in shape, when not 



