329 
GEN 
behavioau'; civil.—He had a majiner of bind¬ 
ing tlie cliains of tliis Icingdoiu dian molt (,f liis yrede- 
cell'ors. Swift. —Grace,ul in mien.—So fpruce that iie 
can never be genteel. Tatler. —Elegantly drelfed.—-Seve¬ 
ral ladies tiiat have twice her fortune, are not able to be 
always fo and fo conhant at all places of pleaftire 
and expcnce. Law. 
GEN'l'EEL'NKSS, f. Elegance; gracefiilnefs ; po- 
litenefs.—Parinegiano has dignified x.\\q gentcelrafs of mo¬ 
dern effeminacy, by uniting it witli the linipiiciiy ot the 
ancients, and the grandetir and feverity of Michael An¬ 
gelo. Reynolds. —Oualities befitting a man of rank. 
GEN'i'EEL'Y, adv. Elegantly ; politely.—After a 
long fatigue of eating and drinking, and babbling, he 
concludes the great work of dining genteelly. South. — 
Gracefully ; handfomely. 
GEN'TIAH, a town of Afia, in the countrt' of Af- 
fam ; 370 mileseaft of Patna. Lat.z5.io.N. Ion. 92. to. 
E. Greenwich. 
GEN'SlNG,yi [Chinefe.] A reftorativc root brought 
from China. See the article Pan.-^x. 
GENTIA'NA,y'. [from Gentius, king of Illyria.] 
Gentian ; in botany, a genus of the clai's pentandria, 
order digynia, natural order rotacete, (Gentiante, JuJf.) 
The generic charadlers are—Calyx : perianthium five- 
parted, fharp ; divifions oblong, permanent. Corolla : 
petal one, tubular at the bottom, imperforate, at the 
top five-cleft, flat, withering, various in form. Stami¬ 
na : filaments five, fubulate, fliorter than the corolla ; 
anther fimple. Piftillum : germ oblong, cylindric, 
length of the fiamens ; ftyles none ; lligmas two, ovate ; 
(genu fuperior ; flyle fimple, or two fellile lligmas, 
Gartner.) Pericarpium: capfule oblong, columnar, 
acuminate; (lightly bifid at the tip, one-celled, two- 
valved. Seeds : numerous, fmall, (fixed all round to 
the walls of the capfule, G.) receptacles two, each fait- 
ened longitudinally to a valve.— EJJentialCharaEler. Co¬ 
rolla monopetalous ; capfule fuperior, two-valved, one- 
celled; with two longitudinal receptacles. 
Defeription. The numerous fpecies of this genus have 
very few chara6ters in common; fome of them indeed 
differ fo much from others, that tliey have been ranged 
under feparate genera, and fome are yet of opinion that 
the genus fliould be divided. They are all herbaceous 
plants ; the gentians properly fo called are perennial ; 
molt of the gentianellas and the centauries are annual; the 
leaves are limple, ovate, lanceolate, or linear, or between 
thefe figures, oppofite on the Hem, and entire; com¬ 
monly marked with five or three Itrong nerves j flowers 
either axillary or terminating, folitary or elfe in bunches 
or whorls; antherai coalefcing in feveral of the fpecies, 
as in fyngenefia monogamia. The figure of the fruit is 
conflant ; but both that and the number in the flower 
varies much in the different fpecies. Some fpecies ex¬ 
clude a fifth part of the number in the flower. One 
adds three parts of the number in the flower. One fpe¬ 
cies has the neck of the corolla fpreading : a fecond has 
the neck doled with hairs ; a third has the fegments 
ot the corolla ciliate ; a fourth has a bell-lhaped, up¬ 
right, plaited border : in a fifth it is (tarred, with fmall 
fegments interpofed between the larger ones : Ibme have a 
bell-fliaped, andotliers have afunnel-fliap'ed corolla, &c. 
Species. I. Corollas five-cleft or thereabouts, and 
foniewhat bell-fliaped. i. Gentiana vilcofa, or clammy 
gentian: corollas five-cleft, one-ltyled ; panicles tricho- 
tomous ; bradtes perfoliate ; leaves oblong, three-nerv¬ 
ed. See Exacum vifcojhn, vol. vii. p. 92. 
2. Gentiana lutea, or yellow gentian: corollas ufu- 
ally five-cleft, wheel-fliaped in whorls ; calyxes fpatha- 
ceous. Root thick, of a yellowifh brown colour, and 
very bitter tafte; lower leaves petioled, oblong-ovate, 
a little pointed, itiff, yellow’-ifli green, having five large 
veins on the back, and plaited ; Item three or four feet 
high and more, with a pair of leaves at each joint, fef- 
lihi or almofl embracing, of the fame form with tJie 
Yol.VIII. No. 596. 
GEN 
lower ones, but dirninifliing gradually to the top ; flow¬ 
ers in w liorl,-. at tiie upper joints ; when llie flower ope:is 
the calj’x hurlhs on tlie fide ; fruit fliort, fwelling in the 
middle; feeds often baircn. Native of Lapland, Swe¬ 
den, Cferm.ui}’, Swifl'erland, I'rance, Italy, and Nortlt 
America. Haller obferves that it occupies large tradts 
of country, untouched by any cattle. It flowers in 
June and July. 
Our old authors call it felwort and bitterwort. Before 
hops had ellablilhed their reputation, this with many 
other bitter herbs was occafionally ufed in brewing. 
Mr. Houghton (tit the end sf the lyth century) affirms, 
that he lias .divers times fold it for that purpofe. The 
root of this fpecies of gentian, imported from Swiffer- 
land, Germany, &c. is the principal bitter now em¬ 
ployed in medicine, though the roots of feveral other 
forts are faid to be equally efficacious, and are even pre¬ 
ferred by fome. As the intenfe bitters are generally 
admitted to be not only tonic and ftomachic, btit alia 
anthelmintic, antifeptic, emmenagogue, antiarthritic, 
and febrifuge, this root has a better claim to the pof- 
feflion of thefe powers than mod; of the kind. Man/ 
dyfpeptic complaints, though arifing from the debility 
of tlie ftomach, are more eff'ettually relieved by thefe 
bitters than by Peruvian bark : and gentian, joined with 
equal parts of tormentil or galls, has conftantly fuc- 
ceeded, as we are told by Dr. Cullen, in curing inter¬ 
mit tents, if given in fufficient quantity. As a fimpie 
bitter, gentian is rendered more grateful to the ftomach 
by the addition of an aromatic, and for this purpofe 
orange-peel -is commonly ufed. Gerarde informs us, 
that “mafter Ifaac de Laune, a learned phifition, fent 
him plants of this for the encreafe of his garden from 
Burgundie : and that it is named inEngiifh Jelwoort gen., 
tian, bitterwoort, baldmoyne, and baldmoney." 
3. Gentiana purpurea, or purple gentian: corollas 
ufually rive-cleft, bell-fhaped in whorls ; calyxes trun¬ 
cate. Root as thick as a man’s arm, and two feet long', 
white within and flriated on the outride, extremely bit¬ 
ter, and ufed medicinally in fome countries, inftead of 
G. lutea, with equal fuccefs ; ftem fmall.er, a foot or 
eighteen inches in height ; leaves foniewhat broader. 
Haller is of opinion that it can fcarcely be feparated 
from the fixth fpecies. Native of Denmirk, Swiffer- 
land, and Silcfia. 
4. Gentiana macrophylla, or long-leaved gentian : 
flowers five-cleft, fellile, in whorls ; root-leaves equal 
to the Item, which is almolt naked. Root creeping, 
with a tranfverfe ftock, and abundance of whitifli fibres ; 
root-leaves often a fpan in length, flariding up above the 
Item, broad-lanceolate, five-nerved, Iheathing at the 
bafe; flowering-llem coming out on the fide of thefe, 
procumbent at the bottom but gradually rifing, having 
only one or two pairs of leaves, befides the floral ones 
on the top. In its habit this is between the purpurea 
and cruciata, as decumbens and algida are between this 
and pneumonanthe. The herbaceous part is hardly bit¬ 
ter. Native of all Siberia, efpecially the eaftern part, 
where the cruciata is not found ; flowering in July and 
Auguft. 
5. Gentiana campanulata, or bell-fluiped gentian : co¬ 
rollas bell-fhaped, feven-cleft, flreaked, unfpotted ; ca¬ 
lyxes feven-cleft. Root yellow on the outride, very 
bitter, fuliform, branched. Native of Carinthia, on 
Mount Garten in Reichenau ; flowering in July. Dif- 
covered originally by Burfer. 
6. Gentiana puntfata, or fpotted-flowered gentian: 
corollas bell-fhaped, fivc-cleft or thereabouts, dotted ; 
calyxes five-toothed. This agrees in many refpedfs 
witli G. pannonica, but the leaves are more ovate, Jefs 
elongated, and more ftrict. Native of Auflria, Silelia, 
Italy, Sec. 
7. Gentiana pannonica, or rough gentian: corollas 
bell-fhaped, fix or feven-cleft, dotted ; calyxes ufually 
fix-cleft,; Item-leaves lanceol.ite, acuminate. Root yeJ- 
4 P lewitl* 
