superne plantis junioribus multiceps, ad collum foliosa, vetustioribus caules plurimos vel solitarios emittens. Caules prostrati, elongati, 4 unc. ad pedem longi, 2–3 lin. diametro, crassi, subsucculenti, teretes, siccitate subangulati, e basi ramosi, per totam longitudinem foliosi v. inferne nudi, e foliis inferioribus deciduis annulati, internodiis ½–¾ uncialibus, superne incrassati, apicibus ascendentibus, ramis abbreviatis sæpius floriferis. Folia numerosa, inferiora, præsertim exemplaribus ramosis junioribusque, latiora, rosulata, circa collum stellatim patentia, omnia plus minusve recurva, late spathulata, obtusa, retusa, v. emarginata, marginibus integerrimis, interdum recurvis, 1–1½ unc. longa, ¼–½ unc. lata, 3-nervia et reticulatim venosa, nervis subtus prominulis, læte sed pallide viridia, nitida, purpureo picta, siccitate fusca et nigrescentia, interdum membranacea; petiolo lato, superne plano, subtus convexo, deorsum dilatato, semiamplexicauli, cum caule articulato. Inflorescentia verosimiliter paniculata, sed ramis obsoletis et pedunculis abbreviatis, hinc flores ut videtur solitarii v. bini, et inter folia subsessiles. Flores, solummodo plantis junioribus visi, iisque ramis caulibusque abbreviatis. Calyx campanulatus, 5-fidus, segmentis late linearibus, obtusis, corolla ⅓ brevioribus, 3-nerviis, apicibus recurvis. Corolla late campanulata, subrotata, 4–5 lin. longa, albida, 5-fida, lobis late obovato-oblongis, obtusis, concavis, 5–6 nerviis, nervis rubro-purpureis;—glandulis, staminibus, ovario que ut in G. concinna.
During our stay in Lord Auckland's group I much regretted being unable in my drawings, to imitate the pellucid and waxy appearance, especially of the flowers and leaves of this most beautiful plant, to which in other respects the artist has done ample justice. It bears nearly the same relation to the G. saxosa, Forst., as the former-described species does to G. montana. Though placed by Dr. Grisebach (in his excellent Essay on Gentianeæ) in separate sections of that genus, there appears to me to be but little to remove these two species far from one another, except the annual root of one. As is the case with G. saxosa, the leaves of this are variable in breadth, but not to the same extent, and it entirely differs from that plant in the prostrate habit of growth, very short peduncles of the flowers, and in the broader and shorter corollas, which are not much longer than the lobes of the calyx. The anthers in all the New Zealand as in the Tasmanian species are versatile on the apex of the filament, which is curved and at first projects forward; after the discharge of the pollen, or rather the first dehiscence of the anthers, the apex of the filaments immediately becomes erect and then reflexed, whence in the expanded flowers the anthers are almost invariably found to be extrorse. Although Gentians are seldom white-flowered as species, this and the former are decidedly so, with red or red-purple at the base of the segments, and the veins of the same colour; the pure blue of the European species is unknown amongst those of these regions, or of the higher latitudes of South America. Indeed I think that few genera display so full a series of colours in the flowers as this does; red, blue, yellow and white are all exhibited in it, with many of the intermediate compound tints. Yellow and white are rare in the regions of the Gentians, but almost invariably present; the red species are nearly confined to the Andes of South America and New Zealand. Amongst Dr. Jameson's 'Botanical Notes on the Flora of the Andes of Peru and Colombia' I find the following interesting remark: "Of sixteen species of Gentian with which I am acquainted, one-half are red, four purple, two blue, one yellow, and one white." (Bot. Journ. vol. ii. p. 649.) Their inferior limit under the line we find from the same source to be 7852 feet, and they ascend from thence nearly to the limits of perpetual snow on Cotopaxi[1]; they do not in South America descend to the level of the sea in a lower latitude than 54° or thereabouts, where however there are no alpine species, though the snow-line does not descend below 4000–3500 feet[2]. In the Himalayah, where the species are all blue-flowered, one species has been gathered by my friend Mr. Edgeworth near Ratha Kona, on the Mána Pass, at an elevation of 16,000 feet, near the limit of perpetual snow; and another reaches in lat. 31° N. the altitude of
- ↑ 15,646 feet, Jameson, l.c. p. 657. The mean lower limit of perpetual snow on the Andes under the equator is at an altitude of 15,748 feet, according to Humboldt; and 15,496 from the mean on six mountains measured by Dr. Jameson.
- ↑ King, in Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. vol. i. p.165. Darwin, Journ. p.277.
