GENTIA'NA LU'TEA. 
YELLOW GENTIAN. 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA 
Order. 
DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
gentianacea;. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
The Alps. 
3 feet. 
June &July. 
Perennial 
in 1.596 
No. 1055. 
Gentiana, a name adopted after Gentius, King 
of Illyria. Gerard calls this plant Eel-wort; Eel 
being derived, as Sir James Smith observes, from 
EEL, signifying gall ; alluding to its extreme bitter- 
ness, and not from Eell, the north-country appel- 
lation of a mountain, as stated by some authors. 
This is the officinal Gentian of our Pbarma- 
copceas, and is now, as it has been from the earliest 
ages of which we have any botanical records, well 
known as a powerful medicinal plant. It is not 
this pai’ticular species alone, but many others also 
of Gentian, which possess the same properties ; 
indeed almost every countiy has its native medici- 
nal Gentian. Great Britain has the species Cam- 
pestris and Amarella; Austria has Pannonica; 
the European Alpine countries have both Lutea 
and Punctata; the United States have Catesbiea; 
Northern India has Kurroo; all possessing similar 
properties. Thus the species of Gentian are dis- 
tributed over the world ; each fitted for its respec- 
tive climate, as if a beneficent Providence had 
bestowed it on every people — its particular virtues 
having been given to no other genus. 
