Family, Gentian. Color, white or purplish. Calyx of 2 spreading sepals. Corolla, bell-shaped, 4-cleft. Stamens, 4 inserted between the divisions of the corolla. Style, short with a 2-divided stigma. Fruit, a capsule whose inner surface is covered with seeds. Leaves, reduced to scales on the stem below, but leaf-like under the raceme of flowers, opposite, wedge-shaped. Stem, somewhat fleshy, simple, or branched, generally of a purplish color, 3 to 6 inches high. April and May.

A rather curious plant, with thick, roundish leaves, sessile flowers terminating the stem, or about 3 in the axils, found in cool, moist woods from New Jersey southward to Georgia, in mountains of Virginia 2,600 feet high.