FRINGED GENTIAN 



Gentiana crinita Froelich 



Fringed gentian is a plant always surrounded with sentiment, 

 which is reflected in Bryant's lines: 



Thou waitest late, and comest alone 

 When woods are bare and birds have flown, 

 And frosts and shortening days portend 

 The aged year is near his end. 



Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 

 Look through its fringes to the sky, 

 Blue — blue — as if that sky let fall 

 A flower from its cerulean wall. 



In some years the fringed gentian may be found growing plenti- 

 fully in a given locality, but the next season it may be sought in vain 

 in the same spot. The fact that the plant is a biennial, flowering only in 

 its second season, sometimes accounts for this, although in some places 

 other individuals come into bloom in the in-between years. The seeds, 

 although numerous, are very small and light and easily washed away 

 by rain or blown about by the wind. There are seven hundred mem- 

 bers of the Gentian Family, most of them found in temperate and 

 arctic regions, although many others grow in the higher mountains 

 of tropical countries. The name is derived from that of King Gentius 

 of Illyria. 



Fringed gentian has a wide range, from the mountains of Georgia 

 to Quebec and South Dakota. 



The flowers sketched were obtained near Mount Kisco, New York. 



PLATE 336 



