
GENTIAN FAMILY. Gentianaceae. 
This has a slender, leafy stem, from a 
Tall Centaury = few inches to over a foot tall, and flowers 
Erythraéa 
exaltata (E. not so large as the last, but pretty and gay, 
Douglasii) about half an inch across, bright pink with 
(Centaurium) a distinct white “eye.’’ This grows in 
a sandy soil, as far east as Wyoming. 
Spring, summer, : z 
pei. There are many kinds of Gentiana, of 
West, etc. northern regions and the Andes; calyx 
tubular, usually with five teeth; corolla 
variously shaped with from four to seven lobes, often 
fringed, or with folds between the teeth; style short or 
lacking; stigma two-lipped. 
Wiadicaa Geran A pretty plant, with leafy, often branch- 
Gentiana actta 12g Stems, from six to twenty inches tall, 
Purple and numerous flowers, with stiff pedicels 
Summer and leafy bracts, forming several small 
West, etc. 
clusters along the upper part of the stem. 
They are each about half an inch long, various shades of 
purple or blue, sometimes white, and easily recognized 
by the little crown of white fringe in the throat of the 
tather tubular, five-lobed corolla. These plants have very 
small roots, so that it is difficult to pick them without 
pulling them up, and as they are annuals they are easily 
exterminated. They are common in northern mountains, 
in moist places across the continent, and in Europe and Asia. 
es This has smooth, thin leaves and pretty 
Bpeaan flowers, three-quarters of an inch long, 
propinqua with lilac or purple corollas, satiny in 
2 urple texture, with four lobes, pointed at the 
ummer ey : : 
eae tips and more or less fringed. This 
grows in high mountains. 
A handsome perennial, with leafy stems, 
mais eebpsersae from five to fifteen inches tall, bearing one 
Gentidna calycosa 
Biue or several, fine flowers at the top. They 
Autumn are an inch and a half long, with a bright 
Northwest blue corolla, dotted with green, with 
plaited folds and small teeth between the five lobes. This 
has been found in Yosemite, but is more common at Lake 
Tahoe. There are many other handsome large Blue 
Gentians in the West. G. latea, with yellow flowers, is the 
German kind from which the well-known drug, gentian, is 
made. 
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