300 THE GENTIAN FAMILY. [Cicendia. 



Stamens and divisions of the corolla 5 (sometimes with 5 

 additional smaller lobes). 

 Flowers pink or red. Calyx divided to the base. Style 



deciduous 2. Erythr^ea. 



Flowers blue. Calyx not divided below the middle. 



Style remaining long after the flowering is over . . 3. Gentiana. 

 Stamens and divisions of the corolla usually 8. Corolla 



yellow, rotate 4. Chlora. 



Leaves alternate. Water plants. 

 Leaves entire, orbicular. Flowers yellow . . . .6. Limnanthemum. 

 Leaves with 3 leaflets. Flowers white, fringed within . . 5. Menyanthes. 



I. CICENDIA. CICENDIA. 



Very small annuals, differing from Gentiana in their deciduous style, 

 and from Erythrcea in the short, broad tube of the corolla, with the 

 parts of the flowers in fours instead of fives. The few species are all 

 European, and some botanists limit the genus to the single G. pusilla, 

 regarding the G. filiformis as generally distinct under the name of 

 Microcala. 



Stems simple or with few erect branches. Calyx-teeth broad and 



short - 1. C. filiformis. 



Stems much branched. Calyx-segments linear 2. G. pusilla, 



1. O. filiformis, Keichb. (fig. 674). Slender G. — A slender annual, 

 about 2 inches high, with a few pairs of small, narrow leaves, chiefly 

 near the base of the stem, and either simple and 1-flowered or divided 

 into 2 or 3 branches, each with a single small yellow flower. Calyx 

 campanulate, with 4 broad, short lobes ; limb of the corolla also 4 -cleft. 

 Capsule globular, 1 -celled. Microcala filiformis, Link. 



In moist, sandy situations, common in western France and Spain, ex- 

 tending northward to Denmark, and eastward in southern Europe to 

 Sicily and some other parts of the Mediterranean. In Britain, only in 

 the south-western counties of England, and in the extreme south-west 

 of Ireland. Fl. summer. 



2. C. pusilla, Griseb. (fig. 675). Dwarf G. — Usually a smaller 

 plant than G. filiformis, and much more branched, but chiefly distin- 

 guished by its pink, white, or pale yellow flowers, with the calyx 

 divided to the base into narrow segments, instead of the short, broad 

 teeth of 0. filiformis. 



In moist, sandy situations, in France, Spain, and here and there in 

 the west Mediterranean region, and has been found in the Channel 

 Islands. Fl. summer. 



II. ERYTHRCEA. CENTAURY. 



Annuals, with pink, or, in some exotic species, pale yellow flowers 

 differing from Gentiana by their more deeply divided calyx, their 

 deciduous style, their anthers, which become more or less spirally 

 twisted after shedding their pollen, and by the capsule, in which the 

 seed-bearing edges of the valves meet in the centre, so as to divide it 

 more completely into 2 cells than in most others of the family. 



1. E. Centaurium, Pers. (fig. 676). Common Centaury. — An erect 

 annual, from an inch or two to a foot high, usually much branched in 

 the upper part. Lower leaves usually broadly ovate, forming a spread- 

 ing radical tuft ; the upper ones in distant pairs, varying from ovate or 

 oblong to narrow-linear. Flowers pink or red, usually numerous, in 



