Seeds sent by Mr. Forrest to Mr. J. C. Williams, 
Caerhays Castle, were sown there in 1910, and the 
material for our figure has been provided by a plant 
presented to Kew by Mr. Williams which flowered in 
April, 1917. This species, which has been named 
ft. prostratum at Edinburgh by Mr. W. W. Smith, comes 
near to #?. nivale, Hook. f., from Sikkim, with which it 
agrees in habit, but from which it differs in having larger 
ciliate leaves and densely villous flower-stalks. There is 
no doubt that &. prostratum is one of the most distinct 
and beautiful of the dwarf species now in cultivation. 
It has shown itself perfectly hardy in this country so far 
as winter cold is concerned, but whether its flowers will 
escape the later frosts remains to be seen. The month 
of April, 1917, being very inclement, the Kew plant was 
taken into a cool greenhouse as soon as the flower-buds 
began to open, in order to preserve the blossoms from 
injury by the frost and snow then prevailing. 
DEscriPTion.—Shrublet, 2-4 in. high ; twigs numerous, prostrate, the older 
ones brown or grey, the younger pale green, beset with rather dense weak white 
hairs; new shoots 3-1 in. long, laxly leafy like the shoots of the previous 
season, densely grey lepidote. Leaves oblong-elliptic, apex blunt or rounded, 
conspicuously mucronate, base broadly rounded or truneate, $f in. long, }-} in. 
wide, thinly coriaceous, margin revolute at first ciliate with weak white hairs, 
at length almost glabrous, green, polished and glabrous above, beneath closely 
beset with small contiguous scales at first white, at length pale brown ; midrib 
impressed above, raised beneath, sparingly lepidote ; lateral nerves about 6 on 
each side, the midrib conspicuous above, obscure beneath ; petiole ;; in. long, 
sparingly lepidote and setose. Flowers in terminal 1-3-flowered umbels; outer 
bud-scales oblong-lanceolate with mucronate foliaceous tips, about in. long, 
brown, hispidly pubescent outside; inner bud-scales obovate or oblanceolate, 
acutely and abruptly caudate-mucronate, keeled on the back, and sparingly 
pubescent; pedicels slightly nodding, in. long, densely white villous and 
minutely lepidote. Calyz large, yellowish-green, 5-lobed to the base; lobes 
markedly imbricate below, wide obovate-rounded, 3 in. long, } in. wide, glabrous 
outside, margin sparingly ciliate. Corolla very wide funnel-shaped, pink- 
violet, limb spreading, dotted with red behind ; tube 2 in. long, softly pubescent 
on both sides ; lobes 5, ovate-rounded, wide auricled at the base, 2 in. long, 
3~ in. wide, sparingly pubescent outside but not lepidote. Stamens 9-10, 
longer than the corolla-tube ; filaments violet, over 4 in. long, incurved at the 
top, densely villous near the base; anthers dark brown, ;); in. long. Ovary 
finely and densely lepidote, # in. long; style reddish, glabrous, as long as the 
corolla, considerably larger than the stamens ; stigma reddish-brown, capitate. 
Tas. 8747.—Fig. 1, part of leaf showing the margin and under surface; 
2, scale from the same ; 3, calyx and pistil ; 4, corolla, laid open; 5 and 6, 
stamens; 7, ovary :—all enlarged, 
Rea Sere, eRe 
