Cicendia. | L, GENTIANACE. 301 
1. C. filiformis, Reichb. (fig. 672). Slender Cicendia.—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 campanu- 
late, 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. 
Fi, summer. 
2. C. pusilla, Griseb. (fig. 673). Dwarf Cicendia.— Usually a still 
smaller plant than C, filiformis, and much more branched, but chiefly dis- 
tinguished 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 C. filuformis. 
In moist, sandy situations, in France, Spain, and here and eee in the 
west Mediterranean region, and has been found in the Channel Islands. 27. 
summer, 
Il. ERYTHRAA. ERYTHRAA. 
Annuals, with pink, or, in some exotic species, pale yellow flowers, differ- 
ing 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, &. Centaurium, Pers. (fig.674). Common Hrythrea, 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 
spreading radical tuft ; the upper ones in distant pairs, varying from ovate or 
oblong to narrow-linear, Flowers pink or red, usually numerous, in a ter- 
minal, repeatedly-forked cyme or panicle. Calyx-segments 5, narrow-linear. 
Corolla with a slender tube, and a spreading, 5-cleft limb. 
In dry pastures, and sandy places, on banks, roadsides, etc. ; widely spread 
over Europe and central Asia, extending northward to south Sweden. Com- 
mon in Britain, excepting in the north of Scotland, where it is almost con- 
fined to the coast. #l.all summer. It varies much in the size and breadth 
of the foliage and flowers, and has been subdivided into 2, 3, or even 6 or 7 
supposed species, which however run into one another so much that no pre- 
cise limits can be assigned them. The most prominent forms or varieties in 
Britain are : 
a. Large-flowered E. Tall, not much branched, with a compact cyme 
and. large flowers; the tube of the corolla long and the lobes ovate. 
b. Common LE. (H#. pulchella, Fries.). More branched, with numerous 
flowers ; the tube of the corolla not much longer than the calyx, and the 
lobes of the limb narrow. 
c. Broad-leaved EH. (H. latifolia, Sm.). Including all the dwarf forms 
with rather large flowers and broad leaves. 
d. Linear HL, (#. littoralis, Fries.; ZH. linarifolia, Pers.). Much 
