Himalayan Plants.' The latter species, with yellow flowers, 

 having lately blossomed iii the Royal Gardens, will at no very 

 distant period be given in onr pages. All of these are remark- 

 able for the size to which they attain as compared with our Eu- 

 ropean and North-American species, and especially that of the 

 blossoms. 



Descu. Root, according to Dr. Royle, long and tapering, pro- 

 bably therefore perennial. Stem herbaceous, one to two feet 

 high, scarcely branched, clothed, as is the whole plant (except 

 the petals), with patent rigid hair-like prickles. Leaves very 

 variable ; the outermost, and most radical in our plant, are cor- 

 date, somewhat five-lobed, and more or less incised; the next to 

 them are oblong-ovate in circumscription, with deeper but more 

 acute lobes, while the stem-leaves are narrow-oblong, deeply 

 pinnatifid, with the segments variously lobed and incised, then 

 pass gradually upwards into bractcas, which only differ from the 

 cauline leaves in their smaller size : all are petioled, the radical 

 ones the most so. The flowers measure more than two inches 

 across, and form a long raceme, of which the upper ones expand 

 first ; they are solitary in the axils of the floral leaves or bracts. 

 Petals a rich purple-blue colour. Stamens numerous, forming 

 a bright golden eye to the flower by the rich colour of their 

 compact anthers. Ovary oval, hispid, with erect prickles. Style 

 columnar ; stigma capitate. 



Fig. 1. Pistil. 2. Transverse section of the same: — slightly mug nified. 



