GENTIANA LUTEA, OR ASTERIA LUTEA.— YELLOW GENTIAN. 
Class V. PENTANDRIA.— Order II. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order, GENTIANE^. THE GENTIAN TRIBE. 
Of this fine genus more than sixty species have been described by botanists, and six of these, viz. Gen- 
tiana Pneumonanthe, acaulis, verna, Amarella, campestris, and nivalis, are natives of Britain. They are 
elegant herbaceous plants, mostly inhabiting alpine regions of the northern hemisphere, and extremely 
various in size, with flowers generally of a vivid blue. Most of them are perennial ; some few are annual ; 
but they are all intensely bitter, especially the roots of the larger perennial kinds. Few of the species are 
cultivated in our gardens, except the Gentiana acaulis, or Dwarf Gentian, distinguished by its humble 
growth, its large, solitary bell-shaped, exquisitely beautiful, azure flowers, and the G. lutea, or Yellow Gen- 
tian, neither of which is observed to thrive well in the vicinity of large towns. The latter, which is the 
officinal species, grows abundantly on the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, in 
the mountainous forests of many parts of Germany, and in North America. It thrives well in this country, 
in a deep, rich, loamy soil, flowering about the end of June or beginning of July, and few plants are more 
stately and ornamental. 
The root is perennial, long, roundish, with numerous thick contorted branches, brown externally, and 
yellowish within. The stem is simple, erect, hollow, roundish, and somewhat annulated and square at the 
base near the root, cylindrical and smooth towards the top, and rises three or four feet in height. The 
lower leaves are petiolate, large, spear-shaped, entire, five or six-ribbed and plaited ; those of the stem are 
concave, ovate, smooth, sessile, almost embracing the stem, and of a yellowish green colour. The flowers 
are large and handsome, yellow, produced in whorls at the upper joints, and stand upon long peduncles. 
The calyx, which is a membranous, deciduous spathe, bursts on the side when the flower opens ; the corolla 
is rotate, and divided into five or more long, narrow, spreading, elliptical segments. The filaments vary 
from five to eight, according to the number of segments, and are alternate therewith; they are shorter than 
the corolla, and furnished with long erect anthers. The germen is conical, crowned with two sessile re- 
flected stigmas; and becomes a conical capsule, divided into two valves, and contains numerous small, com- 
pressed, winged seeds. 
The scientific name Gentiana, was conferred on this genus in commemoration of Gentius, a king of 
Illyria, who, according to Pliny, first discovered, or at least experienced the virtue of the principal species, 
the Gentiana lutea of Linnaeus, in the cure of the plague, which infected his army. The vulgar name Fell- 
wort or Gall-wort, is strictly applicable to the whole genus, on account of the extreme bitterness of the 
plants which compose it. 
Culture. — Yellow Gentian delights in a deep loamy soil and a shady situation, where it will thrive 
much better than in a light soil, or an open exposed site. It is propagated by seed, which should be sown 
in pots soon after it is ripe, for if it is kept till the spring it will not germinate ; these pots should be placed 
in a shady situation, and kept clean from weeds. In the spring the plants will appear, when they must be 
duly watered in dry weather, and kept free from weeds till the following autumn ; they should then be care- 
fully shaken out of the pots, so as not to break or injure the roots ; and a shady border of loamy earth 
should be well dug and prepared to receive them, into which the plants should be put, at about six inches 
distance each way, observing to let the tops of the roots be a little below the surface of the ground, then 
press the earth close to the roots; after this they will require no farther care, but to kqep them constantly 
clean from weeds ; and if the following spring should prove dry, they should be regularly watered, which 
will greatly forward their growth. In this border the plants may stand two years, by which time they will be 
fit to transplant where they are designed to remain ; therefore in autumn, so soon as the leaves decay, they 
may be removed; but as the roots of these plants run deep into the ground, like carrots, there must be 
great care taken in digging them up not to cut or break their roots, for that will much weaken, if it does 
not kill them. After the plants are well fixed in their places, they require no particular care, but to dig the 
ground about them early in the spring before they begin to shoot, and in the summer to keep them clear 
from weeds. The roots of these plants will continue for many years, but the stalks decay every autumn ; 
the same roots do not flower two years together, and rarely oftener than every third year ; but when they 
flower strong, says Professor Martyn, to whose edition of Miller’s Dictionary we owe the preceding re- 
marks, they make a fine appearance ; and as they delight in moist shady ground, where but few ornamental* 
plants will thrive, they should not be wanting in good gardens. The dried roots are imported into this 
country chiefly from Germany ; but we know no reason why the plant should not be cultivated in our 
physic gardens. 
