Our plant is the Calathian violet of the old writers. A plant called Marsh Felwort, Swertia perennis, is very nearly allied to this. It is said by Hudson to have been found in Wales by Dr. Richardson, but it is believed that the Marsh Gentian was mistaken for it. Bishop Mant thus alludes to the two plants:

"And see Marsh Felwort bares to view

His wheel quintuple's brilliant blue,
Cambria, thy pride! if Cambrian coast
Indeed that native beauty boast.
Less apt to pay the searcher's cares
Than that a kindred name which bears,

The beauty of the Gentian race

Whose gallant flowers with 'bravery grace,'

Or chalky down, or meadow wet,

The blue Calathian violet."

The Felwort appears to have been highly prized, for we find Gower saying

"Though toke зhe feldwodde and verveyne,

Of herbes ben not better tweyne."

2. G. vérna (Spring Gentian).-Stem tufted, 1-flowered; leaves egg-shaped, lower ones crowded; calyx angular, with sharp teeth; corolla salver-shaped, with cleft segments, 5 large and 5 small; root perennial. This is a very lovely Gentian, sometimes cultivated in gardens, though it is smaller than the handsome G. acaulis, which is still more frequently to be seen on the flower-bed, and which is a native of the Swiss mountains. The Spring Gentian flowers in April. It is a rare plant of Alpine pastures, growing in barren limestone districts. It has been found in Teesdale, Durham, and in some places in Ireland. Its stem is prostrate and rooting, and its flower is rather large, and intensely blue.

Many of the Gentians are mountain flowers, some growing at heights beyond which nothing is to be found save moss and lichen; and often they are, on the Swiss mountains, the companions of some of the Primrose tribes on the very verge of eternal snow. The severest intense cold does not hurt them, and they grow on tropical elevations often at a great height. Until recently, it was thought that they never occurred in these regions at a lower elevation than 7,852 feet; but Dr. Joseph Hooker, in his late botanic researches on the Himalayan mountains, found one, G. arenaria, at an elevation of only 2,000 feet. The whole climate was there thoroughly tropical, but the Gentian grew on mossy rocks cooled by the spring of the river. One species has been found on the Himalaya range at the height of 16,000 feet; and the G. prostrata occurs in the Rocky Mountains of America, at an equal elevation to this.

Meyen, the German writer on the Geography of Plants, remarks, "It is an inexpressible pleasure which only a botanist can feel, when, coming from the North, he ascends a high mountain in a southern region, and finds one wellknown plant after another. Even in the Swiss mountains his pleasure is great; but how much greater is it when far from home he is wandering on the mountains of the southern hemisphere! The sight of a little Gentian, very similar to our G. uliginosa and G. nivalis, at a height of 14,000 or 15,000 feet, as in the Cordilleras of Southern Peru, can enchain a botanist for hours; he again and again gathers this little plant, which takes him, at least in imagination, home." 3. G. nivális (Small Alpine Gentian).-Leaves egg-shaped, lowermost broadly elliptical; branches single-flowered; corolla salver-shaped, 5-cleft, with intermediate smaller segments; calyx cylindrical, with five keeled angles; root annual. This is an exceedingly rare and beautiful little Gentian, having an erect stem,

slightly branched, and from two to six inches high. It grows on the summits of Highland mountains, bearing in August flowers of most brilliant blue colour.

4. G. Amarella (Small-flowered Gentian).-Stem erect, branched, manyflowered; calyx 5-cleft; corolla salver-shaped, 5-cleft, fringed in the throat; root annual. This species grows on dry limestone hills, but it is not frequent. It is a formal-looking plant, remarkably erect, with a square leafy stem, often tinged with purple, very variable in size, being from three to twelve inches high. The flowers are rather large, of a purplish blue colour, expanding only in bright sunshine, and occurring in August and September.

5. G. campestris (Field Gentian).-Stem erect, branched, many-flowered; calyx 4-cleft, the 2 outer lobes much larger than the others; corolla salvershaped, 4-cleft, fringed in the throat; root annual. This plant is very similar to the last, but distinguished from it by its larger 4-cleft flowers, which often cluster in great numbers at the upper part of the stem from August to October. The plant is very common on hilly pastures, especially in Scotland; and on limestone hills, near the sea, its dull purple blossoms often stand up above the short grasses. It contains in every part of it some of the tonic, bitter principle common to the tribe, and is sometimes used by country people to mingle with their hops in brewing. Several of the species have, in various times and places, been used instead of the hop; and before the general culture of the latter plant, malt liquor received much of its flavour from a species called in those days Felwort, Bitterwort, Baldmoyne, or Bald-money. In those times, when queens and maids of honour drank foaming ale for their breakfast, several bitter plants were in much request; and Gerarde tells, that a species of Gentian was sent to him from "Burgundie by Master Isaac de Lanne, for the encrease of his garden." The species to which he refers appears to be the Gentian of commerce, G. lutea, still used for various disorders, but not for so many as in those days, when it was considered soporific as well as tonic. Modern physicians find, however, that one species at least, G. microphylla, has soporific properties, and it has been used in many instances in procuring sleep to the weary sufferer. The basis of the celebrated Portland powder is said to be Gentian; and as the roots of nearly all the species contain a large proportion of sugar, an intoxicating liquor has been distilled from them, which the Swiss call Gentianwasser. The French term the Gentian La Gentiane, and the Germans Der Enzian; the Dutch call it Gentiaan, the Italians Genziana, and the Russians Goretschafka.

2. CICENDIA (Gentianella).

1. C. filiformis (Least Gentianella).—Leaves slender, lanceolate, sessile; stem forked, sessile; flower-stalks elongated; root annual. This is a graceful little plant, very similar in its habit to the Dwarf Centaury, and with a stem about the same height, but with smaller flowers. It is from two to four inches high, the narrow leaves withering early, and the flowers opening only during sunshine. These flowers are yellow, occurring from July to September. It differs from the Gentians in having four instead of five stamens, and its calyx and corolla 4-cleft. It grows on sandy heaths, where water has stood during winter. It is found in the south and south-west of England, and in sandy turf-bogs in Ireland.

3. ERYTHRA (Centaury).

1. E. Centaúrium (Common Centaury).—Stem quadrangular, branched above; leaves oblong; flowers in nearly sessile panicles; calyx half as long as the tube of the opening corolla; root annual. The Common Centaury is a pretty and frequent plant on heaths and dry pastures, as well as on cliffs by the sea, from