724 GENTIANACEAE. | Sebaec, 
Style short. Capsule oblong—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 179 ; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. (1864) 191; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 445. 8. gracilis 4. Cunn, 
Precur. (1838) n. 400. 
Norte Istanp: Bogs at Mangamuka, Hokianga, A. Cunningham ; Hawke's Bay, 
Colenso !. A. Hamilton! Tryon! Wellington—Swampy places at Wanganui, A. Allison / 
raised beaches at Cape Turakirae, B. C. Asionand T. Ff. C./ Sours Istanp: Canter- 
bury—Near Christchurch, J. B. Armstrong ; Lake Ellesmere and other localities on the 
Canterbury Plains, 7. Kirk / Akaroa, Lyall! Otago—Locality not stated, Buchanan ! 
Apparently rare and local in New Zealand, but common in many parts of Australia, 
2. GENTIANA Linn. 1} 73S 
Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves opposite. Flowers axillary and 
terminal, solitary or cymose, usually conspicuous. Calyx tubular or cup- 
shaped, 5- or rarely 4-lobed. Corolla subrotate or campanulate or tubular 
or funnel-shaped ; lobes 5-4, in species not found in New Zealand often 
with folds between the lobes. Stamens 5-4, inserted on the corolla-tube, 
included ; anthers oblong or ovate. Ovary 1-celled, with 2 parietal 
placentas ; style short or almost wanting ; stigmas 2, persistent, recurved ; 
ovules numerous. Capsule stalked or sessile, ellipsoid to narrow-oblong, 
2-valved to the base. Seeds small, globose or oblong. 
A large and beautiful genus, probably including not far from 350 well-ascertained 
species. It is most abundant in the temperate and alpine regions of the Northern 
Hemisphere, extends along the chain of the Andes throughout South America, is 
sparingly found in Australia and Tasmania, and is plentiful in New Zealand, except 
in the northern half of the North Island. The species are in all countries highly 
variable and difficult of discrimination, but nowhere more so than in New Zealand, 
where they are peculiarly unstable, presenting a bewildering multitude of closely allied 
forms, to arrange which systematically is a most perplexing task. The late Baron 
Mueller solved all! difficulties by uniting the whole of the Australian and New Zealand 
species, together with several from South America, under Forster’s G. saxosa ; but 
this extreme view has not received the sanction of any other botanist of repute, and 
is entirely repudiated by New Zealand workers. The first serious attempt to deal with 
the New Zealand forms as a whole was that made by Mr. Kirk in his “ Revision ” 
(Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii (1895) 330), in which 10 species were admitted. In the first 
edition of the Manual, and after obtaining a personal acquaintance with most of the 
species, and after the study of large suites of specimens from all parts of the Islands, 
I ventured to increase the number to no less than 18; in some cases with considerable 
hesitation, but the arrangement then made has been acquiesced in by local botanists. 
Since then several other species have been described, notably by Mr. Petrie, so that 
the number in the present enumeration is 24. It is somewhat remarkable that the 
whole of these are apparently contined to the Dominion, 
Owing to their extreme variability, the student will find it difficult’ to identify the 
species until he has collected a large series of specimens from widely separated localities, 
and has thus become acquainted with the range and trend of variation. I must here 
again mention the assistance given to me in preparing the previous edition by Mr. N. E. 
Brown, who kindly compared many of my specimens with those at Kew and in the 
British Museum Herbarium. This assistance I have now again found to be of great 
importance. 
A. Annual, dwarf, 1-3 in. high. Flowers solitary at the tips of the branches. Calyx-lobes 
broadly ovate. 
Stems simple or sparingly branched. Leaves mostly cauline, 
é-$in. long. Flowers bin. diam. .. , *) 2 .. 1. G. filipes. 
B. Perennial, dwarf, 1-4 in. high. Flowers solitary, terminating naked scapes. Calyx- 
lobes linear-subulate. 
Stems densely tufted. Leaves nearly all radical, narrow-linear, 
_¢ yin. Flowers 4-4 in. long Mf ws ty i 
Stems forming dense clumps. Radical leaves spathulate, 4-3 in. 
Cauline leaves linear, Flowers 4—3 in. 4 : .. 38. G. Gibbsir. 
2. G. lineata. 
