the purpose, our plate has been prepared. The species, 
A. obtusilola, to which this interesting Burmese plant is 
here referred, was first described by Mr. D. Don in 1825 
from specimens sent home by Dr. Wallich from Gossain 
Than in the Alps of Central N epal. Its range of distribu- 
tion, for an alpine species, is unusually wide, for it 
extends from Kashmir throughout the Himalaya to 
Western China, and its discovery on Mount Victoria 
Somewhat unexpectedly widens its area towards the 
south. As Sir Joseph Hooker has pointed out, A. 
obtusiloba is further extremely variable in size, hairiness 
and colour of flower; one singular form from Western 
Tibet with numerous golden yellow sepals is perfectly 
glabrous. Elsewhere the flowers may be white, purplish 
or golden, and in Kashmir, where both yellow and purple- 
flowered forms occur, the latter is well-known to English 
visitors as the Blue Buttercup. This name is also used 
in Burma where, so far, only a form with purplish-blue 
flowers has been found. The distinctive feature of this 
flowering branches, a feature not met with in specimens 
from other portions of the wide area in which A. obtusi- 
Himalayan ‘Specimens are concerned, is probably the 
result of differences in the conditions under which 
individual plants have been grown, and it is not incon- 
ceivable that the great length of the flowering branches 
and their decumbent position in the form now figured 
may be the consequences of cultivation. In the absence 
to treat this charming plant as a form of A. obtusiluba ; 
should the communication of material from its original 
habitat show that the features which mark it are 
natural ones, it may be desirable to treat it rather as a 
distinct variety. The plant gives some promise of 
proving hardy; an example planted out at Glasnevin in 
May, 1915, has grown as well and flowered as freely as 
those in the frame. 
