5 
GENTIANA GELIDA 
(ice COLD GENTIAN.) 
CLASS. oitup;ii. 
PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
GENTIANACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx four or five-cleft. Corolla funnel-shaped, rarely salver-shaped, with a 
marked throat ; limb five-cleft, 'without any accessary segments. Stamens five ; anthers free, 
incumheiit; filaments flattened. Stigma two-lobed, usually sessile. Capsule one-celled. Seeds 
roundish or oblong. — Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character — Plant perennial, deciduously herbaceous. Sterns numerous, erect, round, 
smooth, from six to nine inches high. Leaves opposite, decussate, clasping the stem, ovate- 
lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous. Calyx with five equal, spreading, lanceolate, acuminate segments. 
Flowers collected into clusters at the summits of the stems. Corolla funnel-shaped ; lobes very 
broadly ovate, acute, with a laciniated appendage on either side the base of each ; limb pale-blue ; 
throat purple, streaked with dark-brown and green ; tube greenish-brown externally. 
The era is, we trust, not far distant, when Alpine plants will be esteemed 
and cultivated to the full extent their simple but cheerful beauty deserves. We 
have latterly marked with joy a movement in their favour by some of the metro- 
politan nurserymen, which affords a pretty certain indication that the current of 
popular taste is flowing towards this channel. And we are constrained to regard 
this proceeding as worthy of the highest praise ; not only because it exhibits a 
public example which is open to the inspection of all, and is therefore likely to be 
generally followed, but because, by pursuing an enlightened system of treatment, 
it is shown that plants which are thought by most to require a large amount of 
attention, can be grown with as little trouble as any tender herbaceous species. 
Among the foremost in promoting this laudable impulse, we may mention 
Messrs. Young, of Epsom. In their nursery a suitable spot has been set apart 
solely for such a purpose ; and it is to their exertions we owe the present 
opportunity of publishing the beautiful figure herewith furnished. In the prose- 
cution of their efforts, every species which time alone, and not lack of interest, 
has thrown into comparative oblivion, is sought out and cherished with the most 
zealous care, while a great number of seeds, which are part of an original 
