92 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



March, 1909 



Wild Flowers Worth Improving 



II. — Annual and Biennial Gentians 



THE most beautiful of all native American 

 gentians, in the popular estimation, 

 and the most difficult to grow, is the fringed 

 gentian {Gentiana crinita). This is often 

 considered the most beautiful blue wild 

 flower of America. Strictly speaking, how- 

 ever, the color is more nearly violet. The 

 peculiar beauty of the flower is due largely 

 to its long fringes, which are often compared 

 to eyelashes, and to the exquisite bud which 

 winds and unwinds in the most fascinating 

 manner as the flower closes at night and 

 opens in the morning. 



A gold medal was awarded by The Gar- 

 den Magazine to Mr. Th'omas Murray 

 for discovering the process of raising the 

 fringed gentian. A full account will be found 

 in the Christmas number for 1905. In brief, 

 the directions are as follows: Sow the seeds 

 the first week in April in a flat filled with 

 sphagnum moss. Never sprinkle water on 

 this, but when the moss gets dry, dip the 

 flat into a tub of water, and let the water 

 rise slowly through the drainage hole in the 

 bottom. In about six weeks the seedlings 

 will be the size of pin heads, and then must 

 be transplanted and set about two and a half 

 inches apart. Two months later they will 

 be ready to move into 4-inch crocks. They 

 are wintered in a frame, and the following 

 spring set outdoors in their permanent 

 quarters. 



I hope that Mr. Murray and others will 

 be able to establish the fringed gentian in 

 some situation where it will "self sow," as 

 the ideal is to produce great colonies con- 

 taining thousands of flowers, such as we 

 sometimes see in the wild. I therefore sug- 

 gest that the seeds be sown on the snow in 

 early winter. 



This judgment is based upon twenty-four 

 years' experience in collecting gentian seeds. 

 I believe I have established the fact 

 that the occasional failure of fringed gentian 

 seed is generally due to their being caught by 

 a severe frost coming at an unusually early 

 date. The fringed and closed gentians 

 often continue to flower after the middle of 

 October. The seed-pods ripen so slowly 

 that they remain soft long after frosts have 

 killed cucumber and tomato plants. They 

 are able to withstand a remarkable degree 

 of frost, but if it is cold enough to make ice 

 before the pods are fully ripened, the pods 

 will be cooked. The ruined seeds may be 



known by their light weight and small size. 

 As a general rule, the seeds are not well- 

 ripened until after our early snows. They 

 then continue in the dry, dead pods until 

 suitable weather comes for their dispersion, 

 when the pods will slowly open, beginning 

 at the top. 



The seeds are carried by the winds, the 

 process being aided in the perennial gentians 

 by the narrow wings of the white or yellow- 

 ish flat seeds, and in the annual gentians 

 by the black, rough, scaly furriness of the 

 angular seeds. So long as the seeds of the 

 fringed gentians are borne onward by the 

 strong winter winds, their peculiar covering 

 helps them along, but as soon as they fall upon 

 the snow, especially in crevices in rough snow, 

 they stick. Let a warm day come in winter, 

 and you will see the snow melting about 

 these black, rough, scaly, furry seeds, for 

 their covering has the same effect upon the 

 snow as a black piece of woolen cloth — it 

 absorbs the heat rays of the sun, and thus 

 causes the snow or ice to melt. 



Everybody knows that the fringed gen- 

 tian is erratic — you cannot be sure of find- 

 ing the flowers where they grew last year. 

 But by imitating the process above de- 

 scribed, I believe that country gentlemen can 

 be reasonably sure of having a big display of 

 fringed gentians every year. 



The finest fringed gentians I have ever seen 

 grew in sandy soil where the water level was 

 within a foot of the surface in quite dry 

 weather. 



What a great achievement it would be if 

 some plant breeder would cross the fringed 

 gentian with a perennial gentian, so that the 



The fringed gentian (Gentiana crinita) is the 

 most beautiful native blue flower. Can be grown 

 from seed 



exquisite flower of the former would become 

 associated with a plant easy to grow and 

 easy to keep indefinitely! No one knows, 

 of course, if this is possible. Yet there are 

 instances in other families of annuals that 

 have been crossed with perennials, and with 

 that hope in view I shall describe the per- 

 ennial gentians in another issue. 



OTHER DESIRABLE VARIETIES 



Meanwhile, however, I wish to point out 

 the merits of two other gentians — one an- 

 nual, the other positively a biennial in some 

 places, but said to be annual in others, which 

 might possibly be more easily crossed with 

 the fringed gentian. 



The stiff gentian, or ague-plant (G. quin- 

 quefolia), has the great merit of being easily 

 grown from its round seeds. The flowers 

 lack the beautiful fringe and are smaller, 

 but they make a fair mass effect, the numer- 

 ous branches bearing the flowers in clusters 

 of about five, whereas the fringed gentian has 

 only one flower on each branch. 



The most desirable form of this species is 

 the western (G. quinquejolia, var. occi- 

 dentalis), which grows twice as high as the 

 eastern (two or three feet). In some parts 

 of the country it is said to be an annual with 

 blue flowers, but in southeastern Michigan 

 it is positively a biennial — the first year 

 bearing simply a whorl of very broad leaves 

 flat on the surface of the ground, becoming 

 in the autumn of the second year a tall, very 

 branching plant, bearing very many light 

 reddish-purple flowers. 



The smaller fringed gentian (G. detonsa) 

 is a very rare and lovely flower, having 

 the petals strongly fringed at the sides, 

 but around the apex they may be simply 

 notched or even entire. Dr. Britton figures 

 a beautiful form of this gentian in which the 

 apex of each petal is regularly fimbriated, 

 giving a lace-like effect to the flower. I 

 have not seen this gentian for twenty years 

 or more. It was common in southeastern 

 Michigan when I was a boy, but in my lo- 

 cality, so far as I know, it has entirely dis- 

 appeared because of pasturage and draining. 

 As I remember it, the branches started 

 mostly from near the ground, always curv- 

 ing outward from the stem, very unlike the 

 branches of the larger fringed gentian, which 

 rise at a sharp angle, this making these 

 species easy to distinguish even when not in 

 flower. 



Michigan. W. A. Brotherton. 



Toads for the Pea Louse 



A FEW years ago my garden peas were 

 badly infested with the pea louse. 

 I put several toads in the garden, and in a 

 very short time the lice had disappeared. 

 It was amusing to watch the toads at work; 

 they would jump as high as they could 

 on the vines, shake down the lice, and then 

 feast on the result of their labors. 



I should advise Mr. Howard Earl, whose 

 article about the louse on nasturtium vines 

 appeared in the January, 1909, number of 

 The Garden Magazine, to try this sim- 

 ple remedy. 



Wisconsin. L. C. Porter. 



