Gentiana. | GENTIANACEAE, : 729 
8. G. montana Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 133.— Perennial; rootstock 
stout and woody, often branched at the top. Flowering stems one or 
several, simple, terete, very tall and stout, 10-24 in. high. Radical leaves 
usually very numerous, densely crowded, spreading, {-1} in. long, 4—3 In. 
broad, broadly obovate-spathulate, rounded at the tip or subacute, gradually 
narrowed into a broad flat petiole, 3-5-nerved, coriaceous, rather thick 
and fleshy when fresh. Cauline leaves in 2-6 opposite pairs, sessile, broadly 
ovate or oblong, 3-5-nerved or in large specimens 7-nerved, acute or 
subacute, often cordate at the base. Flowers very large, white, often 
31 in. diam., in broad many-flowered umbels or cymes 2-4 in. across ; 
pedicels long, slender; bracts broad, usually whorled. Calyx from } to 
nearly 3 the length of the corolla, cut ?-way down; lobes lanceolate, 
acute. Corolla deeply divided; lobes broadly oblong or obovate, rounded 
at the tip—-A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 203; A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) 
n. 399 (but not of Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 178, nor of Handb. N.Z. FI. 
(1864) 190); Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 451. 
Var. stolonifera.Much more slender, 8-l6in. high; stem: with long creeping 
stolons at the base. Radical leaves 1-3 in. long, oblong- or elliptical-spathulate, rather 
thin; petiole more slender, as long as the blade. Flowers fewer, 3—j in. diam., white 
with purple streaks. 
Sourn Isranp: Nelson—Mount Arthur, Mount Peel, and other peaks to the 
northwards, F. G. Gibbs! Mount Stormy, Mount Frederic, Mount Rochfort, Mount 
Buckland, and other peaks on the coast ranges near Westport, abundant, W. Townson ! 
Paparoa Ranges, P. G. Morgan / mountains above the Cannibal Gorge, F. G. Gibbs ! 
Otago—Dusky Sound, Forster, Anderson, Lyall. 2000-4000 ft. January—March. 
At the time of the publication of the Flora and Handbook there was no authentic 
specimen of G. montana at Kew, and Forster’s original diagnosis is so short and scanty 
that the position of the species was quite conjectural. Hooker applied the name to the 
slender annual plant with linear-subulate calyx-lobes originally described by him in 
the “ Icones Plantarum ” as G. Grisebachii, and for many years this determination was 
acquiesced in by New Zealand botanists. But a set of Forster’s plants now exists at 
Kew, and another in the British Museum Herbarium. Mr. N. E. Brown, who has 
critically examined for me the New Zealand Gentians preserved in both collections, 
informs me that Forster’s types of G. Montana represent an altogether different plant 
to G. Grisebachii, but that they agree with specimens collected in Dusky Sound by _ 
Anderson during Cook’s third voyage, and subsequently in the same locality by Lyall. 
I am indebted to Mr. Brown for tracings of Forster’s two specimens, which appear to 
be the only ones extant in England, and also of three of Lyall’s. Forster’s are far 
from good; but Lyall’s correspond so closely with a plant collected on the coast 
ranges near Westport by Townson that I can hardly doubt their being identical, 
although the Westport specimens are rather larger and stouter. Both agree in the 
numerous crowded obovate-spathulate radical leaves, and the short and broad cauline 
leaves, which are sessile and cordate at the base, and the inflorescence is practically 
the same. And both agree fairly well with the description given in A. Richard’s “ Flore 
de la Nouvelle - Zélande,” which is professedly taken from Forster’s manuscripts. 
Probably the species will be found in suitable localities along the whole of the western 
coast, from the Karamea River and Westport to Dusky Sound. 
9. G. graeilifolia Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 1144.— Perennial, 
dark-green, much branched at the base, forming compact sward-like patches 
2-6 in. diam. or more. Flowering stems numerous, 3-6 in. high, decumbent 
at the base, erect above. Leaves numerous, crowded at the base of the 
stem or on short erect branches, 4—% in. long, ;4,-} in. broad, narrow linear- 
spathulate or linear-lanceolate, acute, sessile or the lower ones narrowed 
into short petioles, rather thick and coriaceous, dark-green and shining 
when fresh, often blackish-brown when dry. Cauline leaves 2-4 distant 
opposite pairs, similar to the radical. Flowers 2-4 to each stem, 4-3 in. 
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