Stems clustered, 6—12 inches high, mostly ascending. Leaves from oblong or lanceolate to linear. Flowers from numerous and racemose to few and almost solitary; calyx lobes linear or linear-awl-shaped, unequal, the largest rarely equalling the tube; corolla an inch or less long, bright blue or bluish; funnel-form, spotted inside with white, the lobes ovate, acute, and spreading. A showy species in damp open meadows in the lower valleys throughout the Rockies, especially abundant at Banff; flowering during August. [Illustration: Gentiana affinis Griseb. (⅔ Nat.) Large Gentian.] [Illustration: Romanzoffia sitchensis Bong. (⅔ Nat.) Romanzoffia.] [Sidenote: =Tetragonanthus deflexus= (J. E. Smith) Kuntze. _Spurred Gentian._] Annual, stems simple or branched, slender, erect, 6—20 inches high. Basal leaves obovate or spatulate, obtuse, narrowed into petioles; stem leaves ovate or lanceolate, acute, sessile, 3—5-nerved, 1—2 inches long, the uppermost smaller. Flowers ¼ of an inch or more long, few, on peduncles about their own length, in the axils of the upper leaves; corolla purplish-green or white, 4—5-parted, the lobes ovate, acute, each with a hollow deflexed or descending spur about half the length of the corolla. In moist places and shaded slopes throughout the Rockies; a rather frequent but inconspicuous plant owing to its green colour; flowering in July. MENYANTHACEÆ _Buckbean Family_ In our species a smooth marsh herb, with creeping rootstock, long-petioled, 3-foliate leaves and white or purplish flowers, in racemes on long lateral scapes. [Sidenote: =Menyanthes trifoliata= L. _Buckbean._] Creeping rootstocks sometimes a foot long marked by the scars of bases of former petioles. Leaves 3-foliate, petioles sheathing at the base, 2—10 inches long; leaflets oblong or obovate, entire, obtuse at the apex, narrowed to the sessile base, 1½—3 inches long. Flowers half an inch long, pure white or purplish in 10—20-flowered racemes on scape-like naked peduncles; calyx shorter than the corolla which is bearded with white hairs within, giving the flower a feathery appearance. In open marshes throughout the region, local in distribution; flowering in May and early June. APOCYNACEÆ _Dogbane Family_ In our species, perennial herbs with opposite, entire leaves and small, 5-parted, campanulate, pink flowers in corymbed cymes, and slender elongated terete seed pods. [Sidenote: =Apocynum androsæmifolium= L. _Spreading Dogbane, Honeybloom._] Stems 1—3 feet high, branches broadly spreading, mostly smooth. Leaves ovate or oval, spine-tipped, smooth above, pale and usually more or less hairy beneath. 2—4 inches long. Flowers pink, open-campanulate, ⅜ of an inch broad, with 5 spreading lobes, numerous, in loose, terminal and axillary cymes; seed pods round, slender, curved, 4—6 inches long, narrowed at the apex, usually in pairs; plant with a milky juice.