versus apices purpurascentibus. Corolla campanulata, 5-fida, subrotata, 4-5 lin. longa; tubo brevi, urceolato, pallide flavo, supra medium glanduloso, glandulis 5 majusculis, orbiculatis, depressis, pallide viridibus; lobis obovato-oblongis, obtusis, concavis, integerrimis, æstivatione dextrorsum contortis, tubo duplo longioribus, albidis, basi macula nervisque latis pulcherrime rubris, siccitate pallide flavis. Stamina tubo corollæ infra faucem inserta, lobis glandulisque alterna, inclusa; filamentis validis, lineari-subulatis, elongatis, erectis, purpureis, apicibus arcuatis, primum incurvis, demum recurvis; antheris versatilibus, oblongo-quadratis, violaceis, loculis lineari-oblongis, rimis longitudinalibus antice dehiscentibus, post anthesin (ob apicem filamenti reflexum) posticis. Pollen stramineum, ellipticum, læve, 3-lobatum, utrinque subacutum. Ovarium lineari-lanceolatum, basi in pedicellum breve contractum, superne in stylum validum, gradatim attenuatum, compressum, 1-loculare, pluri-ovulatum; ovula biserialia, placentis suturalibus funiculis brevissimis adnexis, anatropis; stigmata 2, patentia, carpophyllis contraria, subcapitata. Capsula lineari-oblonga, v. lanceolata, ¼ unc. longa, submembranaceo-coriacea, valvis planiusculis, dorso medio sulcatis. Semina numerosa, minuta, biserialia, globosa, subangulata; testa membranacea, pallide fusca, albumini carnoso appressa.
This elegant little species is one of the most attractive plants on the exposed hills, flowering copiously in November and December. The variety β. is rather uncommon and seldom flowers; its appearance is more that of a large leafy state than of perfect or characteristic specimens. The γ. I have never found in flower, and it may prove a distinct species, though the roots are annual and its leaves of the same nature as some of the larger specimens of G. concinna. The former of these varieties approaches the G. montana, Forst., of New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia, itself a very variable plant, according to our own and Forster's original specimens in the British Museum, and to the description of Forster quoted by Richard (Fl. Nov. Zel. p. 203), and the works of Brown and Grisebach (Gen. et Sp. Gentian, p. 235). All the states of the latter however differ from this in the much larger flowers, acute lobes of the corolla, and long peduncles of the flowers. The present plant affords further a proof of a certain similarity in the whole Flora of the south circumpolar regions, a peculiarity more strongly marked in the analogous latitudes of the Northern hemisphere, where large tracts of land with a concomitant vegetation are situated nearer the pole. I must confess that I have much difficulty in recognising more than one species in Tasmania, which is itself closely allied to several South Chilian and Patagonian plants, as G. Patagonica, Griseb., G. multicaulis, Gill., and G. diffusa, H. B. K.
I am here anxious to correct an error I have fallen into, in considering the G. Grisebachii (Hook. fil. in Ic. Pl. t. 636) as distinct from G. montana, Forst.; I have lately had the opportunity of examining large suites of specimens of the true plant, of which the G. Grisebachii is decidedly a small state. And so also with regard to the G. bellidifolia (Ic. Pl. t. 635); though different from the ordinary states of Forster's G. saxosa, and especially from the specimens from which he made his drawings, it is not specifically distinct from other states which have been gathered by Forster, but which, when the G. bellidifolia was published, I had not the opportunity of examining.
Plate XXXV. Fig. 1, a flower; fig. 2, corolla removed from the same; fig. 3, corolla laid open; figs. 4, 5 and 6, stamens and anther; fig. 7, pollen; fig. 8, ovarium; fig. 9, one valve of do. and ovules; fig. 10, capsule; fig. 11, seeds:&mdasglall magnified.
2. Gentiana (Andicola, Griseb.) cerina, Hook. fil.; perennis, caule prostrato vage ramoso, ramis ad apices adscendentibus, foliis cartilagineo-carnosis obovato-spathulatis obtusis vel retusis 3-nerviis in petiolum latum attenuatis, floribus inter folia summa confertis sessilibus, corolla late campanulata subrotata lobis oblongo-lanceolatis obtusis albidis purpureo-venosis, tubo glandulis depressis 5, antheris post anthesin extrorsis. (Tab. XXXVI.)
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; near the sea on rocky islets in Rendezvous Harbour.
Radix fusiformis, elongata, 3-4 unc. longa, cortice crasso, fusco, transversim rugoso tecta, inferne divisa,
