GENTIA'NA ASCLEPIA'DEA. 
SWALLOW-WORT-LIKE GENTIAN. 
Class. 
pentandria 
Natural Order. 
GENTIANACEiE, 
Order. 
digynia. 
Garden 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Variety. 
18 inches 
July, Aug. 
Perennial. 
in 1848. 
No. 1198. 
The origin of the word Gentiana is given under 
No. 1020. 
So true are almost all the Gentians to their stan- 
daid blue, that a white one is a novelty; and for 
which we are indebted to the obliging attention of 
Mr. Moore, nurseiyman, of Perry Bar, Staffordshire. 
Many of the Gentians are not often successfully cul- 
tivated, merely from their being too much exposed 
to the sun and consequent drought; the species as- 
clepiaclea is not, however, fastidious in this particular, 
and may have a place near to the front of the par- 
terre, being as it is, a plant that should be promi- 
nently shown. 
The heibalists of old are loud in their praises of 
Gentian. Parkinson, quoting Galen, says,— “That 
he holdeth it to work by the faculty of bitterness 
therein ; for assuredly if our stomachs could brook 
this and other bitter medicines, and were not so 
nice and dainty to refuse whatsoever is not pleas- 
ing to the palate, it would work admirable effects in 
the curing of many desperate and inveterate diseases. ” 
The most efficient medicinal species, and probably 
the one here alluded to, is Gentiana lutea. 
