BLUE AND PURPLE FLOWERS 
One-flowered Gentian (Gentiana Porphyria). Gentian 
family. August to October. 
An upright perennial, six inches to a foot or over, bearing 
a large, solitary, terminal flower, with light-blue, bell-shaped 
corolla of five pointed lobes, stamens five. The leaves are 
linear. Pine barrens. New Jersey and South. The genus was 
named from Gentius, King of Illyria, who, according to Pliny, 
discovered the plant, i.e., its medicinal virtue (Gray). 
Five-flowered Gentian (Gentiana qiiinquefolia) . Gentian 
family. August to October. 
An upright annual averaging one and one-half feet, with 
about five flowers at the top. Flowers (about one inch) light- 
blue; corolla with five pointed lobes; stamens five. Leaves 
egg-shaped, pointed, with clasping bases. High ground, more 
common in the West. The specimen sketched grew by the 
Cripple Creek Railway, near Summit, Colorado. 
Closed Gentian {Gentiana Andrewsii) . Gentian family. 
August to October. 
An upright perennial, averaging a foot or two high, with 
large flowers varying from blue to dark-purple, in clusters at 
the top and in the axils; corolla closed. The leaves are lance- 
shaped, pointed, without stalks. Moist ground. Fairly com- 
mon in the East. Neither of the Wild Gentians found in America 
furnish the drug used for a tonic. This comes from the Gentiana 
lutea, a European plant. 
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