in high estimation, and by many practitioners are 
regarded with considerable attention at the present 
day. The root is the part of the plant usually em- 
ployed, which is used in the form of tincture, infu- 
sion, and extract, and found to be an excellent 
tonic and stomachic. Modern chemistry has greatly 
increased the utility of vegetable remedies, not only 
by analysis, determining the exact proportions of 
their component parts, but also by concentrating 
their active principles, and thereby producing a 
medicine in its most simple and energetic state. 
The concentrated preparation of Gentian is called 
Gentianin, and promises to be a powerful medicine. 
We are chiefly indebted to the chemists of France 
for thus having discovered that the active principle 
of vegetables is contained in a peculiar alkali, and 
also for the method of its separation, so as to render 
it available to the purposes of the medical practi- 
tioner. The utility of such preparations is abun- 
dantly exemplified by Quinine, the concentrated 
active portion of Peruvian Bark, the use of which is 
now so generally adopted in preference to the Bark 
itself, or its pharmaceutical preparations. 
Gentiana saponaria will flourish in loamy soil, 
in almost any situation ; it is in the culture of the 
smaller alpine species where difficulty sometimes 
arises. These, like alpines in general, should not 
be exposed to the sun’s rays in the height of sum- 
mer. As well as by division, plants may be pro- 
pagated from seeds, which should be sown in au- 
tumn, in pots, containing a mixture of peat and 
loam, and have the protection of the cold frame 
during winter. 
