with a pure white down, giving the leaves a most beautiful 
appearance. Petiole two to four or five inches long, downy. 
Stipules adnate, subulate, brown. Stems erect, dichoto- 
mous, but. not frequently divided; at the divisions of the 
stems bearing a trifid or ternate bractea, below, rarely one 
or two small petiolated leaves, slightly downy. Flowers 
small, on long, slightly pubescent, very slender peduncles. 
Calyx slightly hairy: five inner segments a little longer and 
broader than the five outer ones, or bracteole. Petals 
obcordate, about a fourth larger than the calyx. 
PorenTILLA nivea is found on the more elevated moun- 
tains of the South of Europe, and in all the Northern parts 
of Europe, Asia, and America, extending North nearly 
to the utmost limits of phenogamous vegetation. But 
in these different countries it puts on very different ap- 
pearances, varying extremely in the size of the plant, in 
the relative dimensions of the foliage, in the nature and 
quantity and colour of the pubescence, both above and 
below the leaves, in the number and size of the flowers 
upon the stalk, and in the magnitude of the petals. Lex- 
“MAN has, I think, with much judgment, united with it the 
P. betonicefolia of Nesturr ( Gmel. Sibir. v. 3. t. 37. f. 1.) 
which has the leaves of our var. but the flowers twice the 
size, and the leucophylla of Pattas. Brown seems dis- 
posed to consider the P. Vahliana, Lrum. (the hirsuta FI. 
Dan. t. 1390), the Jamesoniana of Grev. and the macran- 
tha* of Leprgour as too nearly allied to, if not the same as 
nivalis. Of these, the small Arctic one of Captain Parry’s . 
Voyages, as well as from the highest summits of the Rocky 
Mountains, scarcely three inches high, with its leaves silky 
on both sides, and our present var. with its tall stem, large 
leaves and small flowers, may be considered the opposite 
extremes. In Mr. Drummonn’s rich collection may be. 
seen all the intermediate gradations. 
Our present plant was raised, along with many other 
PorentTitiz, in the Glasgow Botanical Garden, from seeds 
gathered in the prairies of the Rocky Mountains by Mr. 
Drummonv. The plant flowered in May and June, in the 
open ground, and is perfectly hardy. 
Fig. 1. Flower.—Magnified. 
* Cuamisso and Scurecntenpat add to this list, P. angustifolia of 
Witz, and Lenm., and P. uniflora of Lepesour, 
