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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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GEN'TIAN, n. [L. gentiana.] A genus of plants, of many species. The common gentian is a native of the mountainous parts of Germany. The root,the only part used, has a yellowish brown color and a very bitter taste, and is used as an ingredient in stomachic bitters. It is sometimes called felwort.
Any
one of a genus (Gentiana) of herbaceous plants with opposite
leaves and a tubular four- or five-lobed corolla, usually blue, but
sometimes white, yellow, or red. See Illust. of
Capsule.
* Many species are found on the highest mountains of Europe, Asia, and America, and some are prized for their beauty, as the Alpine (Gentiana verna, Bavarica, and excisa), and the American fringed gentians (G. crinita and G. detonsa). Several are used as tonics, especially the bitter roots of Gentiana lutea, the officinal gentian of the pharmacopœias. Horse gentian, fever root. -- Yellow gentian (Bot.), the officinal gentian (Gentiana lutea). See Bitterwort. | ||||||||