Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/489

Gentiana.]

4. G. chathamica, Cheesem. n. sp.—Annual, 6–12 in. high; main stem stout or slender, erect, with or without several shorter and weaker branches springing from the base and usually decumbent below. Radical leaves variable in size, ½–1¼ in. long, narrowed into short petioles or almost sessile, ovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate to broadly oblong, obtuse, rather thin; cauline 1 or 2 pairs, ovate or oblong, sessile with a broad often almost cordate base. Flowers small, ⅓–½ in. long, white, sometimes vemed with pink, arranged in several 3–12-flowered umbels terminating the stem and its branches, each umbel with an involucre of 3–5 whorled bracts; pedicels usually longer than the bracts. Calyx about three-quarters the length of the corolla, divided about threequarters way down; lobes linear-oblong, obtuse. Corolla narrowcampanulate, divided two-thirds way down; lobes oblong or oblong-obovate. rounded at the tip. Ovary linear-oblong, sessile.—G. pleurogynoides var. umbellata. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 335.

5. G. corymbifera, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 336.—Usually perennial, but often dying after flowering. Root stout, long and tapering. Stems simple or rarely branched from the base, stout, erect, terete, 6–20 in. high. Radical leaves numerous, rosulate, 1–4 in. long, ¼–¾ in. broad, narrow oblong-spathulate or lanceolate-spathulate, obtuse or acute, narrowed into a short or long petiole, blade often channelled above, 1–3-nerved, coria-