GENTIANACB E. 73 
sinus, generally without glands; throat often closed with hairs. 
Stamens 1 or 5, inserted in the tube of the corolla ; filaments not 
dilated at the base ; anthers not twisting spirally after the pollen 
is shed. Style absent, or undistinguishablc from the attenuated 
point of the ovary ; stigma bifid, persistent. Capsule fusiform- 
cylindrical, 1-celled, septicidally dehiscing by 2 valves, with the 
placentas parietal and sutural. Seeds numerous, minute. 
Annuals or perennials of various habits. Flowers commonly 
blue or purple, opening in sunshine. 
This genus of plants was named after Ceatius, a king of Illyria, who i3 said first 
to have discovered its medical virtues. 
srECIES I.— GENTIANA PNE UMON ANTHE. Linn. 
Plate DCCCCXIV. 
ffefc/*. Tc. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MLI. Fig. 2. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 2313. 
Boot-fibres thickened, fasciculate. Rootstock very slightly 
branched, not creeping, with scale-like leaves. Flowering-stem 
elongated, simple or nearly so. Radical leaves none ; stem-leaves 
strapshaped or linear-strapshaped, very slightly connate at the 
base ; all obtuse, with reflexed margins, 1-nerved or indistinctly 
3-nerved. Flowers solitary, or more rarely 2 together, terminal 
and axillary, stalked, with 2 linear bracts a little way below the 
base of the calyx, arranged in a raceme which is sometimes 
reduced to a single terminal flower. Calyx-limb obconical ; seg- 
ments 5, linear, about as long as the tube or a little shorter. 
Corolla-tube more than twice as long as the calyx ; tube broadly 
obconical, without hairs in the throat ; limb of 5 oval-acute seg- 
ments, about one-fourth the length of the tube, not ciliated. 
Capsule longly stipitate. 
On moist boggy heaths. Local. It occurs in Dorset, ITants, 
Sussex, Surrey, Suffolk, Norfolk, Carmarthen, Anglcsea, Lincoln, 
Notts, Derby, Chester, Lancashire, York, Westmoreland, and 
Cumberland. 
England. Perennial. Autumn. 
Stems generally with a more or less decumbent base, then erect, 
3 to 18 inches high. Leaves 1 to 2 inches long. Flowers 11 to 
2 inches long, rather pale-blue externally, with 5 paler stripes, dark 
vivid-blue within, variegated with white in the throat ; segments 
VOL. VI. L 
