/ * / C H I R O N I A pulchella.
' D w a r f branched Centaury.
P E N T A N D R IA Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cor. falver-fhaped. Stamina inferted into
the tube. Anthem becoming fpiral. Style declining.
Seed-vejfel of two indexed valves.
Spe c . C har. Stem herbaceous, much branched all
the way up. Leaves ovate. Calyx-teeth awl-
lhaped, above half as long as the tube. Flowers
on {talks.
S yn . Chironia pulchella. Swartz in Stockholm Tranf.
fo r 1783,^. 85. t. 3. ƒ. 8, 9. With. 255.
Gentiana Centaurium /3 Linn. Sp. PI. 333. With. 255,
Centaurium minus, paluftre, ramofiflimum, flore
purpureo. Vaill. Parif. 32. t. 6. f . 1.
O E N T from Gorleftone Norfolk, near the fea, by D. Turner
Efq. where it was flrft found by Robert Stone Efq. a gentleman
to whom the botany of Norfolk and Suffolk is much indebted.
Dr. Withering received it from Cornwall. It appears
to be annual, flowering in September.
Root fmall, branching. Stem very much branched from
the bottom, forming a low bufhy herb very various as to luxuriance,
forked, fmooth, with 4 {harp edges. Leaves ovate;
the lower ones very broad ; thofe which accompany the upper
flowers lanceolate. Flowers not fefiile as in C. Centaurium,t. 417,
but on fhortifh ftalks, from each divarication of the ftem, erect.
Calyx deeply divided into 5 narrow awl-fhaped fegments, more
than half as long as the tube of the corolla, which is extremely
{lender and membranous ; the limb is of a full pink, more
delicate and narrow than that of C. Centaurium. Neither do
the antherse twift fo much in ripening as thofe of that fpecies,
making fcarcely one turn. In the germen, ftyle, &c, we have
found no great difference. Our figure of the Centaurium re-
prefents the ftigmas clofed, and partly fading; in that of the
pulchella we have drawn them fpreading, as* before impregnation.
Capfule long, cylindrical, invefted with the corolla.
Seeds very numerous. _
W e are certain from the fpecimen communicated by
Rofen to Linnceus that this is his Gentiana Centaurium var. 6,
and we are equally certain from Dr. Swartz’s !original fpecimen
that it is his G . pulchella, though he defcribes his
with a Ample ftem and folitary flower, having met with it
only in a ftarved ftate. The characters above given feem
to make it diftinct from Centaurium, though both fpecies
vary fo much in luxuriance that they fometimes approach very
near each other in that refpecl. The Linnsean Herbarium has
a Swedifh plant referred to Centaurium, in which the calyx is
longer than the tube, leaves narrow, fpatulate, and the ftem
nnbranched. W e fufpect it muft be different from both th§
jtbove, but have not obferved it in England.