62 
Pentandrm. 
Gentiana. Gen. char. — -Cor. tubular at tlie base ; 
destitute of nectariferous pores ; caps, superior, one 
celled, two valved, many seeded. 
Gen. Verna, Spring Gentian ; with five cleft, salver- 
shaped, crenated corolla ; segments with appendages 
at the base ; leaves ovate, crowded together. Peren- 
nial ; flowers in April, and is a native of the mountains 
in the north of England and in Ireland ; but is an ear- 
ly and beautiful ornament of the garden. 
Gen. Campestris, Field Gentian ; with four cleft, 
salver-shaped corolla ; bearded at the throat ; interior 
segments of the calyx very large. Annual , flowers in 
September ; and grows in dry upland pastures, and in 
sandy downs near the sea. 
Stapeha. Gen. char.— Cor. wheel-shaped, with a 
double star-like nectary covering the parts of fructifi- 
cation. 
Stap. Grandiflorci , Great Flowered Stapelia ; with 
club-shaped, quadrangular branches ; the angles tooth- 
ed ; the corolla large, five cleft ; segments lanceolate, 
acute, and ciliated on the margin. Bot. Mag. 585. 
All the species of this singular tribe of plants are 
natives of the arid deserts in the vicinity of the Cape 
of Good Hope. They are remarkable for the succu- 
lence of their stems and branches, which enables them 
to exist in a parched soil. The Stapelia, from a mis- 
taken analogy, has been denominated the camel of ve- 
getables, because it retains a large portion of fluid in 
the midst of those burning sands, where scarcely any 
other plants appear ; but the resemblance between the 
animal and the vegetable does not hold with regard to 
structure, although the stapelia, in some of its proper- ■ 
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