CXLVII. GBNTIANE^. 660 



rarely alternate or rosulate, nearly always simple and entire, exstipulate. Plotvers 

 5 , generally regular, terminal or axillary, inflorescence various. Calyx persistent, 

 of 6-4 sepals, rarely 6-8, distinct or more or less cohering, sestiration valvate or 

 contorted. Corolla monopetalous, hypogynous, infundibuliform or hypocrateriform 

 or sub-rotate ; throat naked or furnished with a delicate fringed ring ; limh naked or 

 ciliate, or studded with glandular pits, aestivation valvate or induplicate. Stamens 

 inserted on the corolla-tube or -throat, alternate with its lobes ; filaments equal or 

 nearly so, bases rarely dilated and united into a ring ; anthers 2-celled., introrse, 

 dehiscence usually longitudinal, sometimes apical. Carpels 2, connate into a 1- or 

 more or less completely 2-celled ovary; style terminal, sometimes very short or 

 wanting ; stigma bifid or bilamellate ; ovules numerous, rjiany-seriate, anatropous. 

 Capsule 2-valved, usually placentiferous at the edges of the valves. Seeds minute. 

 Embryo minute, in the base of a fleshy copious albumen ; radicle near the hilum, 

 nearly always centrifugal, 



[The following is Grisebach's arrangement of Gentianeoe : — 



Teibb I. EuQENTiANEJB. — CoroUarlohes contorted, Albumen filling the cavity of tlie seed. 

 — Leaves opposite, 



Sub-tribe 1, CHIEONIE^.^^-Anthers erect, cells opposite, without a distinct connective, 

 dehiscence lateral, often short and pore-like. Ghironia, Essacvmi, <fcc. 



Sub-tribe 2, Cgi,OBEji. — Anthers with an obvious connective, often twisted. Style distinct, 

 deciduous, Sablatio; Sebaea, Srythrcea, GJilomx, <^e. 



Sub-tribe 3. Lisunthe^. — Anthprs with an obvious connective. Style persisteat. Lisi- 

 anthus, LeiantJius, Voyria, &c. 



Sab-tribe 4, Sweetie ji.^Anthers with an obvious connective. Stigmas 2, persistent or 

 confluent on the branches of a persistent style, Qentiana, Orawfurdia, Fleurogyne, O^lieUa, 

 Halenia, Swertia, &c. 



Teibe II, Mbnyanthe^, — Corolla,lobes induplicate in estivation. Albumen smaller than 

 the cavity of the seed, — Leaves alternate. Villarsia, Menyanthes, Limnanthemum, &c.] 



Gentianets are near Loganiacets, ApopynecB, and Asdepiadea (see these families). They have also 

 characters in common with Qemeracem, and especially with the genera with free ovaries, as the opposite, 

 leaves, anatropous ovules, parietal placentation, capsular fruit, and fleshy albumen; hut GemeracecB 

 have irregular anisostemonous corollas with imbricate aestivation, and an axile embryo, and are usually 

 perigynous. QrohaticheeB present the same affinity, and they have also, like Gentianeee, a minute and basilar 

 embryo, but they are parasites, and the scales which take the place of leaves are alternate. There is also 

 some analogy between the true Gentianecs and PohmoniaoecB.; but the latter are separated by the many- 

 celled ovary, axile placentation, loculicidal capsule, and alternate leaves. 



GentianecB are scattered over the surface of the globe ; they inhabit the mountains of the northern 

 hemisphere ; they especially abound on tropical [and temperate] mountains [whence their absence from 

 the polar regions is very remarkable]. Gentianeee supply tonic medicines, owing to their containing a 

 bitter principle named gentianin. The chief indigenous species is the Yellow Gentian "{Gentiana Med), 

 one of the earliest of known medicines. G. cruciata is also a febrifuge and vermifuge ; its root was in 

 repute among the ancients as an antidote to the plague and the bite of mad dogs. The Centaury (Erytkreea 

 Centauriuni) is employed as a substituteTor Gentian ; its flowering tops contain, besides a bitter principle, 

 an acrid substance which increases its topic and febrifugal action. The Water-Trefoil, or Buckbean, 



