THE GENTIAN FAMILY 
39 
terminating the short erect stem, while at other times the stem is branched at the top and each 
branch bears a terminal flower so that there appears to be a small terminal cluster. The stems 
are 1-6 inches high, simple or slightly branched, and the leaves are oblong or egg-shaped, 
slightly-pointed, in a rosette at the root, and in pairs up the stem. 
Very rare. On the summits of mountains in the Highlands. August — September. Annual. 
4. Common Autumn Gentian. (GentiAna Amarella. Linn.)— Flowers numerous, 
f-£ inch across, pale, dullish purple, shortly stalked, without bracts at the base of the calyx, 
solitary in the axils of nearly all the leaves and terminating the stem, forming a long narrow leafy 
cluster. Sepals, petals, and stamens 5 ; the calyx tinged with purple and with 5 equal lobes ; and 
the corolla-tube fringed with hairs at the throat. The stems 3-15 inches high, very erect, 
square, purplish, leafy, and much branched in larger species ; and the leaves egg-shaped or lance- 
shaped, the lower ones blunt and the upper ones pointed. [ Plate 13. 
Common on dry chalky pastures ; distributed throughout England and Ireland, more rare in 
Scotland. August — September. Annual. 
5. Scarce Autumn Gentian. (Gentiana german'ica. Willd.) — A very similar 
species, considered only as a variety by many botanists, differing in having larger flowers, about 
| inch across, with unequal calyx-lobes, and the corolla-tube much longer than the calyx. The 
whole plant is larger and stouter. 
Very rare, local. Dry chalky fields near Tring and in a few other places in England ; not recorded 
from Scotland or Ireland. July — August. Annual. 
6. Field Gentian. (Gentiana campes'tris. Linn.)— A very similar species to the 
Autumn Gentian (Gentiana Amarella), though it may be at once recognised by the sepals, petals, 
and stamens being 4 in number instead of 5 ; and by the 2 outer calyx-lobes being very 
much larger than the inner, which are very narrow. The corolla-tube is longer than the calyx. 
The whole plant is also much greener than the Autumn Gentian which is tinged with 
purple. 
Rather common. On dry pastures ; generally distributed throughout England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. July — October. Annual or biennial. 
7. Baltic Gentian. (Gentiana baltica. Murb.) — A species similar to the last, differing 
in the calyx being longer than the corolla-tube. 
Very rare. Downs in Norfolk, Suffolk, Devon, Cornwall, and North Wales. August — October. 
Annual. 
VI. BOG-BEAN. (MENYAN'THES. Linn.) — A genus consisting of the one species : — 
Bog-bean, Buck-bean, Marsh Trefoil. (Menyan'thes trifoliata. Linn.)— A water 
plant, and the only plant in this order with divided leaves in the British Isles. The flowers are 
especially beautiful, f inch across, white, the inner side densely covered with thick white hairs, 
in an erect cluster, formed of a series of little bunches of 3 flowers, terminating a thick, 
leafless, fleshy stalk (scape), 6-18 inches high. The calyx is short and divided into 5 broad 
lobes, free from and inserted below the seedcase (inferior) ; the corolla of 5 petals, widely 
bell-shaped, tinged with pink outside, and white inside and densely covered with thick white 
hairs, inserted below the seedcase (hypogynous) ; stamens 5, inserted in the corolla-tube ; 
carpels 2, with 1 style and 2 stigmas; capsule 1 -celled, many-seeded, opening at the top down 
the middle of each carpel by 2 valves. The leaves are all from the root on long stalks 
sheathing at the base, divided to the base into 3 oblong leaflets (trifoliate) ; the root is thick, with 
densely matted fibres. [Plate 13. 
