Fig. 659. English or Hollow Felwort

The Description.

            Hollow-leafed Felwort or English Gentian hath many long tough roots, dispersed hither and thither within the upper crust of the earth; from which immediately riseth a fat thick stalk, jointed or kneed by certain distances, set at every knot with one leaf, and sometimes more, keeping no certain number: which leaves do at the first enclose the stalks round about, being one whole and entire leaf without any incisure at all, as it were a hollow trunk; which after it is grown to his fullness, breaketh in one side or other, and becometh a flat ribbed leaf, like unto the great Gentian or Plantain. The flowers come forth of the bosom of the upper leaves, set upon tender footstalks, in shape like those of the small Bindweed, or rather the flowers of Soapwort, of a whitish colour, washed about the brims with a little light carnation. Then followeth the seed, which as yet I have not observed.

The Place.

            I found this strange kind of Gentian in a small grove of a wood called the Spinney, near unto a small village in Northamptonshire called Litchborough: elsewhere I have not heard of it.

The Time.

            It springeth forth of the ground in April, and bringeth forth his flowers and seed in the end of August.

The Names.

            I have thought good to give unto this plant, in English, the name Gentian, being doubtless a kind therof. The which hath not been set forth, nor remembered by any that have written of plants until this time. In Latin we may call it Gentiana concava, of the hollow leaves. It may be called also Hollow-Leaved Felwort.

The Temperature and Virtues.

            Of the faculties of this plant as yet I can say nothing, referring it unto the other Gentians, until time shall disclose that which yet is secret and unknown.

            Bauhin received this plant with the figure thereof from Doctor Lister one of his Majesty's physicians, and he refers it unto Saponaria, calling it Saponaria concava anglica; and (as far as I can conjecture) hath a good description thereof in his Prodrom. Pag. 103. Now both by our author and Bauhin's description, I gather, that the roots in this figure is not rightly expressed, for that it should be long, thick, and creeping, with few fibres adhering thereunto; when as this figure expresseth an annual woody root. But not having as yet seen the plant, I can affirm nothing of certainty.