GEN 



GEN 



the Allans were reproached with the frequent executions 

 which ftained tlie palace, and the dominions of the tjTant, 

 Gibbon. Univer. Hill. 



GENTIAH, in Geography, 3 town of Afia, in the 

 counti-y of Aflani; 370 miles jE. of Patna. N. lat. 25^ 10'. 

 E. long. 92' 10'. 



GENTIAN, in Garilening, the common name of a large 

 hardy perennial herbaceous pla!:t, which has a root that 

 affords an extremely llrong bitter. See Gen'tiaxa. 



GENTIANA, in Botany, -/^i^'**" of the Greeks, 

 named after Gentius, a king of Illyria, who is faid to have 

 difcovered it, or at lead to have firft experienced its virtues 

 as a cure lor the plague, which infefted his army. Gentian, 

 or Fell-wort. Tlie latter name, we prefume, is derived from 

 J'el, gall, alluding to its extreme bitternefs, and not from 

 fell, the north-country appellation of a mountain. It there- 

 fore ought to be, as Gerarde writes it, Fel-wort. — Linn. 

 Gen. 126. Sclueb. 175. Willd. Sp. PI. v. i. 1331. Mart. 

 ISlill. Did. V. 2. Sm. Fl. Brit. 284. Julf. 141. Lamarck 

 Illullr. t. IC9. Gaertn. t. 1 14. Clafs and order, PentanJrla 

 Digyn'ia. {Monogynia ; Lamarck.) Nat. Ord. Rotacen, 

 Linn. GeiiUana, Julf. 



Gen. Ch. Ciil. Perianth inferior, in five deep, oblong, 

 acute, permanent fcgments. Cor. of one petal, tubular in 

 the lower part, without pores ; in the upper five-cleft, re- 

 gular, various in form and direclion, withering. Slam. Fi- 

 laments five, awl-lhaped, fliorter than the corolla, connefted 

 with its tube ; anthers oblong, fimple, fometimes united 

 into a cylinder. PiJ}. Germen fuperior, ovate or oblong, 

 cylindrical, as long as the ftamens ; ftyles none ; ftigmas 

 t.vo, ovate, recurved. Perlc. Capfule oblong, roun.difh, 

 pointed, (lightly cloven at the fummit, of one cell and two 

 concave inflexed valves. Seeds numerous, fmall, flattiili. 

 Receptacles two, affixed longitudinally to each valve. 



Efl". Ch. Corolla tubular at the bafe, deftitute of nefta- 

 riferous pores. Capfule fuperior, of one cell and two valves, 

 with many feeds. 



Obf. The figure of the fruit is conflant, but the corolla 

 is very different in different fpecies, being either wheel- 

 Ihaped, bell-fhaped, or funnel-fliaped. In fome there 

 are fm^ll intermediate fegments, in others a fringe to 

 the corolla ; in fome it is plaited, in others plain. A few 

 fpecies have a four-cleft tetrandrous flower ; but the remark 

 in Linn. Gen. 176, that there is a fpecies with three addi- 

 tional parts of the flower, alludes to Chlora, once reckoned 

 a Gen'uina. Linnxus has crafed the line from his own copy, 

 and his editors might eafily have made the fame correction. 

 G. lutea, and fom.e others, however, have frequently a fu- 

 perabundance of divifions and ftamens in a few of their 

 tloffoms. — The upper part of the germen fo much refembles 

 a rtyle, that Lamarck has perhaps offered no great vio- 

 lence to nature, or the Linnaean. fyllem, in confidering it 

 fuch. 



This very noble and beautiful genus of herbaceous plants 

 is chiefly of alpine origin, where the lovely blue flowers of 

 many fpecies enamel the turf in a moft fplendid manner. 

 Moil are perennial, fome few annual. All are intenfely 

 Ijitter in flavour, efpecially the roots of the larger perennial 

 kinds, G. lutea, Woodv. Med. Bot. t. 156, which is the 

 officinal Gentian ; purpurea, Fl. Dan. t. 50, which is the 

 Curfuta of the Edinburgh Phannacopoeia ; pannonica, Jacq. 

 Auft;r. t. 136 ; punSata, ibid, app, t. 28 ; and campanulala, 

 t. 29. Thcfe are fcarcely even feen in gardens, except the 

 firlt, which is not ealily eilablilhed ; but few plants are more 



ftatcly and ornamental. The North American G.f<!(,ona- 

 ria. Curt. Mag. t. 1039 > ^^^ ^^'^ alpine afclepiadea, 

 t. 1078, are both very handfome, and we have found the latter 

 thrive for many years in a bed of peat, earth and loam, as 

 well as on its native mountains. See Curt. Mag. — G. acaulis. 

 Curt. Mag. t. 52. Engl. Bot. t. 1594, is one of the mod 

 common in ^rdens, but requires rather a pure air. G. "ver- 

 na, nearly allied to it in habit and beauty, fee Engl. Bot. 

 t. 493, though wild m the mountainous parts of Durham, and 

 abundant on the Swifs and Italian Alps, will fcarcely live in 

 a garden at all. G. Pneumotunlhe, ibid. t. 20, found on 

 turfy heaths in many places, is likewife very handfome, and 

 rather impatient of culture. We have never feen the cul- 

 ture of the annual kinds attem.pted ; fuch are nivaH:, 

 Engl. Bot. t. 896 ; Amarclla, t. 236 ; and campejlris, 

 t- 237. 



LinnKus was by no means well acquainted with the differ- 

 ent fpecies of this genus, having never vifited the more 

 fouthern alps of Europe, where a'one they are to be fludicd 

 to advantage. Hence his -verr.a and bavarica are one fpecies, 

 and he confounded v. ith lutea, w hich he leems never to have 

 feen, or at leall to have afterwards forgotten, the G. Jlori- 

 bus termhiantibus d'taphanh, Gmel. Sib. v. 4. ic6 ; G. algtda, 

 Pallas. RofF. t. 95. Hence the erroneous remark urder 

 lutea, " petala pun£tis fparhs creberrimis, flava." There is 

 fome doubt whether G. feptemf.da, Sims in Curt. Mag. 

 t. 1229, be thefameas Pallas's t. 92. f. 3. In the former the 

 flower appears to us very rarely, if ever, witli more than 

 five divifions, nor do the habits of th.e two figures accord. 

 Willdenow has fifty-fix fpecies of Ger.t'una, fome of which 

 among the annual kinds we are not able to determine to our 

 fatisfadlion. He quotes a monograph by Froehch, which 

 appears to have great merit, but which has not come to our 

 hands. — Six fpecies only of this genus are wild in Britain, 

 the Chlora and Chironia being now, with the greateft pofljblc 

 propriety, feparated from it. 



Gextiana, in Gardening, coraprlfes plants of the hardy, 

 herbaceous, perennial, flowery kind ; of which the Ipecies 

 cultivated are the yellow gentian (G. luted) ; Ipotted flower- 

 ed gentian {Q. punflata) ; fwallow-wort-leaved gentian (G. 

 afclepiadea) ; and the dwarf gentian, or gentianella. 



Method of Culture In the three firft forts it is eafily cf- 



fefted by fowing the feeds in pots foon after it is ripe, as when 

 kept till fpring it will not fucceed : the pots (hould be placed 

 in a ihadv fituation, and kept clean from weeds. Som.e ad- 

 vife their being fown where they are to rem.ain, but the firft 

 is probably the beft method. In the fpring the plants ap- 

 pear, when they muft be duly watered in dry weather, and 

 kept clean from weeds till the following autumn ; then be 

 carefully fliaken out of the pots, fo as not to break or in- 

 jure their roots ; and a fliady border of loamy earth fhould 

 be well dug and prepared to receive them, into which they 

 fiiould be put at about i^x inches diftance each way, the tops 

 of the roots being kept a httle below the furface of the 

 ground, and the earth prefTed clofe to the roots. If the fol- 

 lowing fpring prove dry, they fhould be duly watered to for- 

 ward their growth. I'he plants may remain here two years, 

 by which time they will be fit to tranfplant where they are 

 defigned to grow, removing them in th.e autumn as foon as 

 their leaves decay ; great care being taken in digging them 

 up not to cut orbreak their roots, astiiat greatly wtakensthem. 

 They require afterwards no other culture but todig the ground 

 about tiiem early in the fpring before they begin to Ihoot, 

 and in the fummer to keep them clean from weeds. The 

 ryots continue many years, but the ft.-Uks decay every autumn ; 

 ' ' M 2 the 



