656 GBNTIANAOEAE (GENTIAN FAMILY} 



old name, variously applied by the herbalists, from centum, hundred, and aurum, 

 gold or gold-piece, alluding, it is said, to the priceless medicinal value ; com- 

 pare the German vernacular name Tausendgiildenkraut.) Eritheea Neck. 

 Eeythraea Borkh. 



»■ Flowers in spikes. 



1. C. SP10A.TOM (L.) Fernald. Stem strictly upright, 1-4 dm. high ; the 

 flowers sessile and spiked along one side of the simple or rarely forked branches ; 

 leaves oval and oblong, rounded at base, acutish ; tube of the rose-colored or 

 whitish corolla scarcely longer than the calyx, the lobes oblong. {Erythraea 

 Pers.) — Sandy coast, Nantucket, Mass., and Portsmouth, Va. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * Flowers in cymes or panicles. 



*- Flowers in definite terminal cymes, at least the central flower sessile. 



2. C. nMBELiArnM Gilib. (Centauky.) Stem upright, 1-5 dm. high, corj/TO- 

 bosely branched above ; leaves oblong or elliptical, acutish, the basal rosulate, 

 the uppermost linear ; cymes clustered, flat-topped, the flowers all nearly sessile; 

 tube of the purple-rose-colored corolla not twice the length of the oval lobes. 

 {Erythraea Gentaurium Pers.) — Waste grounds, N. S.; Mass. to Ind. and Mich, 

 (Nat. from Eu.) 



■<- ->- Flowers loosely paniculate or panieulate-cymose, all pediceled. 



** Corolla-lobes 3-6 mm. long; anthers oblong. 



3. C. PULCHtLLUM (Sw.) DrucB. Low (0.5-3 dm. high); sterp- many times 

 forked above and forming a diffuse cyme; leaves ovate-oblony or oval, not rosu- 

 late below ; pedicels shorter than the calyx; tube of the pink-purple corolla 

 tlirice the length of the elliptical-oblong lobes. {Erythraea ramosissima Pers.) 



— Wet or shady places, N. Y. to 111., and south w. (Nat. from Eu.) 



4. C. texinse (Griseb.) Fernald. Similar to the preceding, but more difiusely 

 forked ; cauline leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, the upper reduced to subulate 

 bracts ; pedicels equaling or exceeding the calyx ; corolla-tube twice the length of 

 the lance-oblong lobes. {Erythraea Griseb.) — Dry soil. Mo. to Tex. 



++ *+ Corolla-lobes 7-10 mm. long ; anthers linear. 



5. C. calycbsum (Buckley) Fernald. Simple or corymbose-branched, 1-6 dm. 

 high ; leaves oblong to lance-linear ; pedicels equaling or exceeding the calyx ; 

 corolla-tube nearly equaled by the oblong or oval lobes. {Erythraea Buckley.) 



— Damp soil, Mo. to Tex. 



3. GENTIAnA [Toum.] L. Gentian 



Corolla 4-5-lobed, usually with intermediate plaited folds, which bear ap- 

 pendages or teeth at the sinuses. Stamens inserted on the tube of the corolla. 

 Style short or none ; stigmas 2, persistent. Capsule ellipsoid, 2-valved, the 

 innumerable seeds either borne on placentae at or near the sutures, or in most 

 of our species covering nearly the whole inner face of the pod. — Flowers solitary 

 or cymose, showy, in late summer and autumn. (Name from Gentius, king of 

 lUyria, who according to Pliny discovered the plant, i.e. its medicinal virtue.) 



§ 1. GENTIAN^LLA [Rupp.] Reichenb. Corolla {not rotate) destitute of ex- 

 tended plaits or lobes or teeth at the sinuses; root annual or biennial. 

 * Flowers large, solitary on long terminal peduncles, mostly i-merous; coroTla 



eampanulute-funnel-form, its lobes usually fimbriate or erose, not crowned; 



a row of glands between the bases of the filaments. 



1. G. crlnita Froel. (Fkinged G.) Stem 1-9 dm. high ; leaves lanceolate 

 or ovate-lanceolate from a partly heart-shaped or rounded base ; lobes of the 

 4-cleft calyx unequal, ovate and lanceolate, as long as the bell-shaped tube of 

 the blue (rarely white) corolla (2.5-6 cm. long), the lobes of which are wedge- 

 obovate, and strongly fringed around the summit; ovary lanceolate. — Low 

 grounds, centr. Me. and w. Que. to Dak., la., 0., and Ga. 



