ICOSANDRIA-POLYGYNIA. Comarum. 423 



Caryophyllata alpina, chamsedryos folio. Rail Syn. 253. 



Chamagdrysaljiina,cisti flore. Bauh.Pin.2AB. Clus.Pann.6 10. f. 61 1, 



Ch. montana. Dalech. Hint. 1 164. f. 



Ch. montana durior. Lob. Ic. 495. /". 



Teucrium alpinum, cisti flore. Ger. Em. 659./. 



On stony alpine heaths. 



On mountains between Gort and Galloway, Ireland. Mr. Heaton. 

 Near Sligo. Mr. Lhicyd. On the highland mountains of Scot- 

 land, in many places, in a micaceous as well as limestone soil. 

 Lighffoot. In the north-west part of Yorkshire, in the district 

 of Craven. Rev. W. Wood. In Durham. Rev. J. Harriman. 



Perennial. July, August. 



One of the most elegant of alpine plants. Roots strong and woody, 

 forming extensive matted tufts of short, erect, somewhat shrubby, 

 leafy sterns. Leaves evergreen, stalked, crowded, simple, ovate, 

 near an inch long, obtuse, strongly, though bluntly, serrated ; 

 convex, furrowed, smooth, of a deep shining green above ; snow- 

 white and cottony, with a red rib, beneath. Footstalks hairy, 

 about as long as the leaves or longer, with a pair of long, awl- 

 shaped, hairy stipulas, united to the base of each. Fl. large, so- 

 litary, on long, terminal, hairy stalks. Cal. for the most part in 

 8 equal, uniform, cottony and bristly segments, sometimes 10, 

 very rarely 6. Pet. obovate, of a brilliant white, as many as the 

 divisions of the calyx, with a strong disposition to exceed in 

 number. Styles densely feathery and silky, straight, without any 

 joint or curvature, lengthened out as the flower fades into long- 

 feathery tails to the seeds, tipped with the more or less perma- 

 nent, smooth, coloured stigmas. 



It seems that the stigmas finally fall off, leaving the tails abrupt, 

 but straight and unchanged, not hooked as in Geum. There is 

 indeed no apparent joint, or interruption, in the course of the 

 style, and if the stigma breaks off, it is only, as in other innu- 

 merable instances, because its functions are performed, and it 

 becomes a dead part. The beautiful Dryas pentapetala precisely 

 agrees in these particulars with octupetala, and is therefore im- 

 properly removed to Geum by Willdenow. See the remark at 

 the end of the preceding genus. 



An entire-leaved Dryas, called integrifolia in Fl.Dan. t.\2l6, which 

 I have from West Greenland, gathered by Mr. W. Jameson, dif- 

 fers in no other respect from the octopetala, and may be a variety. 



261. COMARUM. Marsh-cinquefoil. 



Linn. Gen. 257 . Juss. 338. Fl.Br.556. Lam. t. 444. Gccrtn.t.73. 



Nat. Orel, see n. 254'. 



Cal. inferior, of 1 leaf, concave, coloured, permanent; limb 

 large, in 10 deep, spreading, acute segments, 5 alternate 

 ones exterior, much the smallest. Pei. 5, less than the 

 smaller segments of the calyx to which they are opposite, 



VOL. II. 2 F 



