Field and herbarium studies of Gentiana linearis Froel. indicate that this species occurs in two areas in the Southern Appalachians: the Allegheny Mountains from Randolph County, West Virginia, to southern Pennsylvania, and disjunctly on Mt. LeConte, Tennessee, in the Great Smoky Mountains. Reports of G. linearis in Virginia and North Carolina are rejected. In the southern part of its range, this species is restricted to habitats with cool climates, ample moisture, and strongly acid soils.