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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.

Of or pertaining to a natural order of plants (Gentianaceæ) of which the gentian is the type.

A kind of blue color. Johnson.

Pertaining to or derived from the gentian; as, gentianic acid.

A bitter, crystallizable substance obtained from gentian.

A crystallizable, sugarlike substance, with a slightly sweetish taste, obtained from the gentian.

The yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea), which has a very bitter taste.

, columbo, and calombo.] American calumba, the Frasera Carolinensis, also called American gentian. Its root has been used in medicine as bitter tonic in place of calumba.

A gentianaceous plant not fully identified. The name is usually given to the Erytheræa Centaurium and the Chlora perfoliata of Europe, but is also extended to the whole genus Sabbatia, and even to the unrelated Centaurea.

A plant (Agathotes Chirayta) found in Northern India, having medicinal properties to the gentian, and esteemed as a tonic and febrifuge.

A European herb (Swertia perennis) of the Gentian family.

American herb of the genus Triosteum (T. perfoliatum); -- called also feverwort amd horse gentian. -- Fever sore, a carious ulcer or necrosis. Miner.

A bitter, yellow, crystalline substance, regarded as a glucoside, and obtained from the gentian.

A tasteless, yellow, crystalline substance, obtained from the gentian; -- called also gentianin.

or designating, a substance (called ophelic acid) extracted from a plant (Ophelia) of the Gentian family as a bitter yellowish sirup, used in India as a febrifuge and tonic.

A European yellow-flowered, gentianaceous (Chlora perfoliata). The whole plant is intensely bitter, and is sometimes used as a tonic, and also in dyeing yellow.