1870.] 



229 



Gentiana J^esciikei re-estallished as a new genus of GentianaceyE, 

 by S. Ku it z, Esq. 



(with. pi. xiii.) 



[Received 5th April, 1870 j read 7th May, 1870.] 



A few years ago I communicated to Dr. B. Seeniann, Editor of 

 the Journal of Botany, together with a few other novelties, also the 

 description and some fragments of a Gentianaceous plant, which I 

 had called Jaschkea gent iano ides. At the same time I requested 

 him to give an opinion on the validity of the new proposed genus. 

 Dr. S e e m a n n referred the plant to Prof. Grisebach, who 

 declared it to be " apparently an undescribed species of the Ama- 

 ^//fl-section of Gentiana, where, — on account of the hair-crown 

 being wanting, — it will have to range near G. Moor cr oft i ana, 

 "Wall., from which it differs by its smaller flowers, its acute lobes 

 of corolla, and its calyx, characters which make it allied to G. Ger- 

 manica," (comp. Journal of Botany, 1867, p. 241, in a note), and 

 consequently, either Prof. Grisebach, or Dr. S e e m a n n, 

 changed my proposed name into Gentiana {Amarella) Jceschlcei, 

 Kurz, (by an accident spelled Tceschke). 



I had no sufficient leisure to re-examine the plant under question, 

 until very lately, when I came to the same conclusion, at which I 

 arrived some years ago, viz , that it is a new genus of Gentian ace^j, 

 and nearer allied to Ophelia, than to Gentiana. I suppose, that Prof. 

 Grisebach was misled by the general appearance of the plant, 

 and based thereupon his opinion, without examining the position 

 of the stamens ; for I do not believe, that, had he really observed 

 the peculiar insertion of the stamens, he would have placed the 

 plant in the Amarella section of Gentiana. Moreover, he has, in 

 his elaborate monograph of Gentianace^e in DeCandolle's 

 Prodromus admitted genera, based upon less important characters 

 than those which the present sj)ecies possesses. Had the filaments 

 been simply adnate to the corolla, I would have considered that 

 circumstance of very little importance, but they are actually termi- 

 nal between the corolla-lobes, as is shewn by the fact, that the 

 epidermis of the corolla overlies the vascular bundles leading 



