Calyx 5- (rarely 6-) parted; its lobes long-acuminate, with carinate midrib. Corolla campanulate-funnel-form, deeply 5–6-lobed. Anthers oblong, versatile, straight or recurving in age. Style filiform, nearly persistent; stigma of 2 broad lamellæ.—Glaucous large-flowered annuals, with more or less clasping and connate leaves, and slender terminal and more or less paniculate 1-flowered peduncles. (From εὖ, well, and στόμα, mouth, alluding to the open-mouthed corolla.)
1. E. Russelliànum, Griseb. One or two feet high; leaves from ovate- to lanceolate-oblong; lobes of lavender-purple corolla obovate (1½´ long), 4 times longer than the tube; anthers hardly curving in age.—Neb. to Tex.
4. GENTIÀNA, Tourn. Gentian.
Calyx 4–5-cleft. Corolla 4–5-lobed, regular, usually with intermediate plaited folds, which bear appendages or teeth at the sinuses. Style short or none; stigmas 2, persistent. Capsule oblong, 2-valved; the innumerable seeds either borne on placentæ at or near the sutures, or in most of our species covering nearly the whole inner face of the pod.—Flowers solitary or cymose, showy, in late summer and autumn. (Name from Gentius, king of Illyria, who used some species medicinally.)
§ 1. GENTIANÉLLA. Corolla (not rotate) destitute of extended plaits or lobes or teeth at the sinuses; root annual.
[*] (Fringed Gentians.) Flowers large, solitary on long terminal peduncles, mostly 4-merous; corolla campanulate-funnel-form, its lobes usually fimbriate or erose, not crowned; a row of glands between the bases of the filaments. Autumn-flowering.
1. G. crinìta, Froel. Stem 1–2° high; leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate from a partly heart-shaped or rounded base; lobes of the 4-cleft calyx unequal, ovate and lanceolate, as long as the bell-shaped tube of the blue corolla (2´ long), the lobes of which are wedge-obovate, and strongly fringed around the summit; ovary lanceolate.—Low grounds, N. Eng. to Dak., south to Iowa, Ohio, and in the mountains to Ga.
2. G. serràta, Gunner. Stem 3–18´ high; leaves linear or lanceolate-linear; lobes of the 4- (rarely 5-) cleft calyx unequal, ovate or triangular and lanceolate, pointed; lobes of the sky-blue corolla spatulate-oblong, with ciliate-fringed margins, the fringe shorter or almost obsolete at the summit; ovary elliptical or obovate. (G. detonsa, Manual.)—Moist grounds, Newf. and W. New York, to Iowa and Minn., north and westward.
[*][*] Flowers smaller, 4–5-merous; corolla somewhat funnel-form or salver-form, its lobes entire; peduncles short or none, terminal and lateral on the acute-angled stem.
3. G. Amarélla, L. Stems 2–20´ high; leaves lanceolate to narrowly oblong, or the lowest obovate-spatulate, the margins minutely scabrous; calyx-lobes (4–5) foliaceous, lanceolate or linear; corolla mostly blue, ½´ long or more, with a fimbriate crown at the base of the oblong acute lobes; capsule sessile.—Var. acùta, Hook. f. Calyx almost 5-parted; crown usually of fewer and sometimes very few setæ.—Lab. to N. Vt. and N. Minn., west and northward.