GENTIAN FAMILY. Oentianaceae. 



A similar annual species with lance- 

 serrata linear or linear leaves, a stem but little 



Light violet- branched with a few blunt wedge-shaped 

 blue leaves at the base, and violet-blue flowers 



July-Septem- near iy as large as those of the preceding 



species with the fringe at the summit of 

 the corolla short, or reduced to mere teeth. 4-18 inches 

 high. Moist ground from western N. Y. to Minn, and 

 Iowa. 



Also an annual ; the stem ridged and 

 Gentiana four-sided. The leaves, in general, ovate, 



quinqueflora sharply pointed at the tip, slightly clasp- 

 Light violet- ing at the base, and with 3-7 ribs. The 

 blue very light violet-blue or lilac flowers clus- 



October tered at the apex of the branches in groups 



of 2-7 but generally 5. The flowers smaller, 

 scarcely an inch long, tubular, and terminating in five 

 , triangular small bristle-pointed lobes. A common spe- 

 cies in the west, attractive but not so beautiful as the 

 Fringed Gentian. 8-22 inches high. Moist hillsides 

 from Me., south, and west to Mich, and Mo., generally 

 in the mountains ; it is found at an altitude of over 6000 

 feet on the peaks of N. Car. Occasional in Vt. , and absent 

 in central N. H. 



A handsome perennial species with 

 Downy Gentian .. 



Gentiana usually a single stem, generally minutely 



puberula hairy and rough, and with narrow, rigid, 



Blue-violet lance-shaped light green leaves, the up- 

 permost nearly linear. The blue-violet 

 flowers are bell- shaped with five triangu- 

 lar lobes*, rather open-spreading. The calyx has five 

 linear lobes quite rough to the touch. The flowers are 

 borne in terminal clusters or at the bases of the leaves, 

 and are seldom if ever solitary. 8-17 inches high. On 

 prairies and in fields from western N. Y. and Ohio to 

 S. Dak. and Kan., south to Ga. and Ky. Common in 

 the vicinity of Minneapolis, the Minnehaha Falls, and on 

 the dry borders of the great wheat-fields of Minnesota. 



358 



