POPULAR FLORA. 
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69. GENTIAN FAMILY. Order GENTIANACEJE. 
Smooth herbs with a colorless bitter juice ; the leaves, with two exceptions, opposite, 
sessile, and entire ; the regular flowers having as many stamens as there are lobes to the 
corolla, and alternate with them ; stigmas or branches of the style 2 ; pod one-celled, with 
many and usually very small seeds on the walls, usually in two lines. — Tonic, generally 
very bitter plants : none of them poisonous. Flowers commonly large and handsome. 
Leaves simple, opposite and sessile. Corolla with the lobes convolute , i. e. each with one 
edge in and one out, in the bud. 
Corolla wheel-shaped, 5- to 12-parted, white or pink, in cymes. Style 2-parted. 
(Two or three handsome-flowered species in salt marshes, and one or two 
on river-banks, &c., especially South), ( Sabbatia ) Sabbatia. 
Corolla funnel-form or bell-shaped, commonly blue. Style very short or none : stig- 
mas 2, broad, ( Gentiana) Gentian. 
Leaves simple, alternate or all from the root, round-heart-shaped, floating on the water, 
with very long footstalks, w T hich bear near their summit a cluster of small 
white flowers, along with some spur-shaped bodies. Corolla 5-parted, the 
lobes folded inwards in the bud, ( Limnanthemum ) Floating-Heart. 
Leaves with 3 oblong leaflets ; footstalks long, alternate, their base sheathing the thickish 
rootstock or the lower part of a scape, which bears a raceme of white 
flowers. Corolla 5-parted, the lobes white-bearded inside, their edges 
turned inwards in the bud. One species, in bogs, ( Menydnihes ) Buckbean. 
Gentian® Gentiana. 
* Stamens separate : no plaits or fringes between the lobes of the corolla. 
1. Five-flowered Gentian. Slender, branching; leaves lance-ovate; branches about 5-flowered; 
corolla light blue, hardly 1' long, with 5 pointed naked lobes. FI. late summer and autumn; as do 
all the species. G. quinqueflora, 
2. Fringed G. Leaves lance-shaped or. lance-ovate; flowers single on a long naked stalk; corolla 
2 f long, sky-blue, with 4 obovate beautifully fringed lobes. Low grounds. G. crimta . 
* * Anthers cohering with each other more or less : corolla with 5 plaited folds. 
3. Closed G. Stout, leafy to the top, the flowers in sessile clusters, terminal and in the axils of the 
upper lance-oblong leaves; corolla pale blue or purplish, rather club-shaped, with the mouth con- 
tracted, and with 5 fringe-toothed plaits, the lobes hardly any. G. Andrewsii , 
4. Soapwort G. The light blue corolla more open and bell-shaped, its lobes short and broad, but 
longer than the intervening plaits; otherwise much as No. 3. S. and W. G. Sapondria. 
5. Whitish G. Leaves lance-ovate with a heart-shaped clasping base ; corolla dull white or yellowish, 
with lobes longer than the plaits. S. and W. G. alba . 
70. DOGBANE FAMILY. Order APOCYNACEiE. 
Plants with a milky and acrid juice, a tough inner bark, generally opposite and entire 
leaves, and regular flowers : corolla 5-lobed, the lobes convolute in the bud (one edge in, 
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