Mostly perennial herbs with opposite entire leaves, and large sessile or short-stalked flowers in terminal and axillary clusters, or sometimes solitary, usually 2-bracted under the calyx. Calyx mostly 5-lobed, with an interior membrane. Corolla mostly 5-lobed, clavate to funnelform, with thin lobed or toothed plaits in the sinuses, but without glands. Stamens as many as the corolla-lobes, the anthers cohering in a ring or separate. Ovary 1-celled; ovules very numerous; style short; capsule stipitate. [Greek, rough garland.]

About 75 species, natives of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, several others occur in western North America. Type species: Gentiana asclepiadea L. Margins of leaves and calyx-lobes scabrous or ciliate; seeds winged. Anthers separate, or merely connivent.

Stems usually clustered; calyx-lobes unequal; corolla narrowly funnelform 1. D. afflnis.

Stems mostly solitary; calyx-lobes equal; corolla campanulate-funnelform.

2. D.puberula.

Anthers cohering in a ring or short tube.

Corolla-lobes distinct, longer than or equalling the plaits.

Flowers 1-4; corolla campanulate-funnelform, its lobes 2-3 times as long as the plaits.

3. D. parvifolia.

Flowers several or numerous; corolla club-shaped, its lobes not much longer than the plaits.

4. D. Saponaria.

Corolla-lobes none or minute, the plaits very broad.

5. D.Andrewsii.

Margins of leaves and calyx-lobes smooth or nearly so.

Flowers clustered, sessile, 2-bracteolate under the calyx.

Corolla-lobes ovate, twice as long as the plaits; leaves broad, acuminate; seeds winged.

6. D.flavida.

Corolla-lobes rounded, little longer than the plaits; leaves narrow; seeds winged.

7. D. linearis.

Corolla-lobes ovate, acute, much longer than the broad plaits; leaves broad; seeds winged.

8. D. Grayi.

Corolla-lobes triangular-lanceolate; leaves obovate; seeds wingless.

9. D. vulosa.

Flowers solitary, peduncled, not bracteolate; leaves linear.

10. D. Porphyrio.

1. Dasystephana Affinis (Griseb.) Rydb. Oblong-Leaved Gentian

Fig. 3353

Gentiana affinis Griseb. in Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 56. 1834. D. affinis Rydb. Bull. Torr. Club 33: 149. 1906.

Perennial; stems clustered from deep roots, minutely puberulent, simple, 6'-18' high. Leaves linear-oblong to lanceolate-oblong, obtuse or acutish, rounded or narrowed at the base, firm, roughish-margined, indistinctly nerved, 1/2'-1 1/2' long, the floral smaller; flowers few, numerous, or rarely solitary, 5-parted, sessile and solitary or clustered in the axils of the upper leaves, about 1' high, not bracted under the calyx; calyx-lobes linear or subulate, unequal, the longer about equalling the tube, the smaller sometimes minute; corolla narrowly funnelform, blue, its lobes ovate, acute or mu-cronate, entire, spreading, with laciniate appendages in the sinuses; anthers separate; seeds broadly winged.

In moist soil, Minnesota to British Columbia, south in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. Aug.-Oct.