GENTIANACE,E. 



563 



One of the most common species, in 

 mountain pastures, in central and south- 

 ern Europe to the Caucasus and the 

 Altai, but scarcely extending into north- 

 ern Grermany. Rare in Britain, appa- 

 rently confined to a few localities in 

 northern England and western Ireland. 

 Fl. spring or early summer. 



Fig. 671. 



3. Small Gentian. Gentiana nivalis, Linn. (Fig. 672.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 896.) 



A slender, erect, leafy annual, some- 

 times single-flowered and only an inch 

 high, but more frequently 2 to 4 inches 

 high and more or less branched ; each 

 branch bearing a single blue flower 

 much like that of the spring G., but 

 considerably smaller. The tube of the 

 corolla is but little more than 6 lines 

 long, and the lobes of the limb not 2 

 lines, broadly ovate and pointed, with 

 very small 2-cleft ones between them. 



A high alpine plant, not uncommon 

 in the higher mountain-ranges of central 

 Europe as well as in the extreme north, 

 but not recorded with any certainty as 

 extending into central Asia. Hare in 



Britain, and only on a few of the higher Scotch mountains. 

 summer. 



Fig. 672. 



FL 



4. Autumn Gentian. Gentiana Amarella, Linn. (Eig. 673.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 236.) 



An erect, much-branched annual, 3 or 4 inches to near a foot high, 

 often assuming a livid-green or purplish tinge. Leaves ovate or lan- 

 ceolate ; the flowers numerous, sometimes much crowded, sometimes 

 forming a loose, oblong, leafy panicle of a pale purplish-blue, and vary- 

 ing much in size. Calyx divided to the middle into 5 narrow-lanceolate, 

 equal or slightly unequal ]obes. Corolla-tube broad, the limb spread- 

 s' 2 



