51 
GENTIANA SEPTEMFIDA. 
(seven-cleft gentian.) 
CLASS. 
PENTANDRIA. 
ORDER. 
DIGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
GENTIANACEA3. 
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, 
incumbent. Filaments flattened. Stigma two-1 obed, usually sessile. Capsule one-celled. Seeds 
roundish or oblong. 
Specific Character. — Plant perennial, herbaceous. Stem erect, roundish, smooth, from nine inches to 
a foot high. Leaves in alternately opposite pairs, dense, ovate-lanceolate, distinctly three nerved. 
Flowers in a terminal cluster of from two to six, and upwards, sessile. Calyx tubular, with long, 
awl-shaped teeth or segments. Corolla campanulate, with a nearly cylindrical tube, expanding a 
little at the mouth, of a greenish or bluish brown externally, spotted within, and having a flattish 
blue limb, generally composed of five lobes, with intermediate laciniated segments. Stamens slightly 
swollen in the middle. Germen spindle-shaped. Stigma two-cleft, ultimately revolute. 
In the charming genus Gentiana , there are some species which grow to the 
height of only a few inches above the ground, and bear solitary flowers, of which 
G. acaulis is a well-known example ; while others have stems from six to eighteen 
inches high, and large clusters of six, eight or more blossoms. Of the latter class, 
the brilliant G. gelida affords an excellent illustration ; though G. Pneumonanthe 
is a more common one, and our present subject is better still, as it can be directly 
examined in connexion with these remarks. 
Of those, again, which are included in the last description, next to the average 
height of the plant, the form of the leaves, and the different arrangement of the 
flowers ; the length of the tube of the corolla, and the dilation or flatness of its 
limb, furnish the readiest marks of distinction, the colour being rarely varied. In 
the case of G. septemfida , however, the profuse spottings of the inside of the flower 
constitute a trifling point for recognition ; but the crowded disposition of the 
foliage, the long, upright, and but slightly swelling tube of the corolla, the com- 
paratively limited breadth across its orifice, and from point to point of opposite 
