320 GENTIAN ACEAB. 



lobes 1 or 5 and often with teeth or plaited folds in their sinuses. Style short 

 ;iikI persistent, or none; stigmas -. Capsule oblong, containing very numerous 

 sinnll Beeds with n loose eellular or winged coat. (Gentius, king of Illyria, who 

 discovered the tonic properties of these herbs.) 



1. G. oregana Gngelm. Perennial, erect, l 1 /^ to 2 ft. high; leaves ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, 1 to 1% in - long; flowers few to several at summit of stem; bracts 

 oblong or ovate; calyx-lobes oblong- to ovate-lanceolate, as long as tube; corolla 

 broadly fonnelform, almost always 5-merous, 1 % to 1% in. long, the lobes ovate, 

 imt oarrowed at base; plaits in the sinuses prolonged into conspicuous subulate 

 appendages; capsule more or less stipitate; seed surrounded by a distinct wing. 



North Coast Ranges, rare within our limits: Mt. Tamalpais; Pt. Reyes; Pt. 

 Arena and northward to British Columbia. There are at least five other species 

 of Gentian in the Sierra Nevada, mostly alpine or subalpine. 



FraSERA Walt., includes perennials with small rotate 4-parted corolla and 

 flattened capsule. F. nitida Benth., has a pale bluish corolla with a single 

 greenish gland on each lobe. — Sierra Nevada foothills northw r ard; Lake Co. F. 

 speciosa Dougl., has 2 glands on each corolla-lobe with a separate crown below 

 them. — Sierra Nevada. 



.Mknyanthes trifoliata L., Buck-bean, is an aquatic or marsh plant of the 

 Sierra Nevada, with alternate compound leaves and white or pink flowers in a 

 raceme; it was found near San Francisco in early days by Bigelow and by Behr, 

 but has since become extinct. It should be looked for along the coast north- 

 ward. 



2. ERYTHRAEA L. C. Rich. Caxchalagua. 



Low erect leafy annuals, mostly freely branching. Flow r ers red or pink, 5 or 

 sometimes 4-merous, in cymes or cymosely paniculate. Calyx-lobes narrow, cari- 

 nate. Corolla salverform, the stamens inserted on its throat. Filaments slender. 

 the anthers oblong or linear, twisting spirally after shedding their pollen and 

 commonly exserted. Style filiform, deciduous; stigmas oblong to fan-shaped. 

 Capsule oblong-ovate to fusiform, 1-celled, but the seed-bearing edges of the 

 valves more or less approximate in the center. Seeds oblong or spherical, reti- 

 culate-pitted. (Greek eruthros, red, the flowers commonly of that color.) 



Anthers oblong; corolla-lobes \ l A to 2 l / 2 lines long 1. E. muhlenbergii. 



Anthers linear; corolla-lobes 3 l A to 4 lines long 2. E. trichantha. 



1. E. muhlenbergii Griseb. Two or 3 to 9 in. high; leaves oblong, the 

 floral lanceolate; inflorescence sparsely paniculate; flowers in the forks with 

 short pedicels or hardly any; lateral flowers with pedicels often as long as the 

 (lower and with 2 bractlets at summit; corolla-lobes oval, obtuse or retuse. 1 } •_. 

 to 2% lines long; anthers oblong; Beeds short -oval. 



Rather common in the Bay region and southward to the Mojave Desert. 



2. E. trichantha Griseb. Nine in. high or less; leaves narrowly ovate to 

 oblong lanceolate. 1 J .-, in. long or less; inflorescence densely cymose; corolla-lobes 

 3 ' , to } linos long, very much shorter than the tube, oblong, acute at apex but 

 at length involute and therefore seeming acuminate; anthers linear; stigmas 

 small. 



Coast Range valleys at Calistoga and elsewhere southward to Monterey. Val- 

 ued by the Spanish < alit'ornians in its fresh state in the treatment of ague, the 

 effective medicinal properties said to be lost in drying. 



3. MICROCALA Boffmgg. & Link. 



Almost minute ;innual. Stem simple, or with peduncle-like branches terminat- 

 ing in ;i I melons yellow tlower. <'aly\ I loothod. Corolla short salverform. t he 



