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GENTIANA acaulis.
Dwarf Gentian.
PENTANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cor. of 1 petal, tubular at the base, destitute
of honey-bearing pores. Caps, superior, one-
celled, two-valved, with 2 longitudinal receptacles.
Seeds many.
Spec. Char. Flower solitary, five-cleft, bell-shaped,
about as long as the quadrangular stalk.
Syn. Gentiana acaulis. Linn. Sp. PL 330. Sims and
Konig, Annals o f Bot. v. 2. 196. Turn, arid Dillw.
Bot. Guide, 504. Curt. Mag.v. 2. t. 52. Jacq.
Austr. t. 135.
G. alpina. Schleich. Cat. 56.
Gentianella verna major. Ger. era. 436.
D r a w n from the original specimen gathered near Haver-
Ford West in South Wales, and sent to Mr. Konig, by M. de
St. Amans, as mentioned in the Annals of Botany, a work
which by its great merit and utility has deserved much more
patronage from the public than it has experienced, and which,
we are sorry to hear, is likely to be discontinued. Its loss
to the science of botany in England can scarcely be compensated.
W e are nevertheless not at all satisfied of this beautiful
Gentiana being really a British native. It is common in
gardens; and in favourable situations, in the choice of which
it is, as Curtis well observes, rather capricious, it will easily
run wild. It has been shown us as a wild plant even in
Middlesex; which no botanist could assent to. Its natural
station is very high on the Alps, where it flowers in Ju n e and
July.
This cannot be confounded with any other species. The
root is perennial, branching, bearing many tufts of sessile,
ovate, broad leaves. Stalks or stems very various in length,
solitary, square, single-flowered, bearing 1 or 2 pair of
leaves. Flower generally longer than the stem, remarkable
for its size and beauty.
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