Flora Medica

GENTIANACEJE.its 5 purplish, lanceolate, acute, erect, smooth-edged segments, whichthough uniform, are often a little unequal in size, and reach somewhatbeyond the middle of the tube of the corolla. The limb of the latterhas occasionally but 4, or even 3, segments, and is never fully expandedbut in bright sunshine. The stamens answer in number to the divisionsof the calyx and corolla, being almost always 5, awl-shaped, withroundish separate anthers. Styles very short. Stigmas ovate. Smith.One of the British substitutes for the Gentian of the shops.1090. G. campestris Linn. sp. pi. 334. Eng. Bot. t. 237.Smith Eng. Fl. ii. 31. Elevated pastures in many parts ofEurope.Herb rather than the paler last, and of more humble growth, varyinggreatlyin luxuriance. Stem somewhat corymbose, with simple flowerstalksof various lengths. Leaves ovate, acute, 3-ribbed. Flowerssomewhat larger and paler than in G. Amarella, 4*-cleft, essentiallydistinguishedby having the two outer and opposite segments of the calyxovate and very broad, covering the two inner, which are narrow andlanceolate, or even awl-shaped; all deeply separated, and minutelyfringed. Smith. A substitute for the officinal Gentian.1091. G. purpurea Linn. sp. pi. 329. Frolich gent. No. 2.Bot. Rep. t. 117. JR. and S. vi. 136. N. andE.pl. med. t. 202.Alps of Norway, Switzerland and Savoy, and the Pyrenees.Root simple and subdivided, many-crowned, taper, thickish, long,yellow outside, white inside, intensely bitter. Stem obscurely 4-cornered,green or greenish-purple, 1-2 feet high. Radical leaves ovate,or ovate-lanceolate, apiculate ;those in the middle of the stem ovatelanceolate,scarcely acuminate the ; uppermost sessile, broad-lanceolate,united and sheathing at the base; all 5-nerved, flexible and brightshining green. Flowers terminal and axillary, on short stalks. Calyxoblong, scarious, semitransparent, slit longitudinally on the inner side.Corolla large, rather coriaceous, with a few scattered dots, arranged inrows, in the inside ; the tube yellow and striated ; the limb 6-cleft,with broad obtuse segments distant at the base. Seeds brown, orbicular,winged. Employed with the next in continental practice.1092. G. pannonica Murr. syst. 267. Jacq. austr. ii. t. 136.N. and E. pi. med. t. 200. Frolich. gent. p. 21. R. and S.vi. 137. G. punctata Jacq. obs. ii.p. 17. t 89. Alps of theTyrol, Bavaria, Carinthia, Styria and Austria.Root tapering, little branched, many-crowned, rugose, as much as2 feet long, thick, yellowish brown outside, whitish inside. Stemround, green or purplish, 1-2 feet high. Leaves ovate, somewhatr' :ulate, 5-nerved, the petioles running down into a sheath ; those onmiddle of the stem ovate-lanceolate, long ;those at the top acuminate,about 3-nerved ; all somewhat coriaceous and bright green.Flowers sessile, or on very short stalks (the upper whorl many-flowered),large, 1| inch long. Calyx campanulate, obsoletely 5-cornered,about 6-cleft, varied with red and green ;the segments almost leafyand unequal, divided by a wide sinus, sometimes serrulated, shorterthan the tube. Corolla coriaceous, membranous, purple, with a yellowishtube, marked all over into rows of deeper spots; the segmentsovate, rather blunt, thrice as short as the tube. Seeds brown, winged,518