The Large Astrantia 



{ASTRANTIA MAJOR) 



This tall and handsome plant is common from the lower 

 mountain region up to 6000 feet all over Switzerland. It 

 grows in meadows, bushy places, and mountain woods. 

 Several long-stalked leaves rise directly from the root stock. 

 They are of a large size, circular in general outline, and 

 consist of five or six radiating lobes with deep depressions 

 between them. The branched flower-stem, perhaps some 

 2 or 3 feet in height, bears relatively few leaves. Its 

 various branches terminate in what appear to be single 

 flowers, but what are really masses of tiny flowerets with 

 short stalks all of the same length, surrounded by a 

 sort of cup made up of radiating leaves. The individual 

 flowers are greenish-white, often with a pinkish tinge, and 

 the radiating leaves are pale pink, with a central green stripe 

 and greenish tip. The flower-masses of the Astrantia are 

 an excellent example of the way in which small and unattrac- 

 tive flowers combine together and form a structure, both 

 large and conspicuous, to attract insect visitors. These floral 

 societies are even better seen in the large natural order the 

 Compositae, of which our next four photographs are examples. 

 The Large Astrantia flowers in July and August, and is met 

 with in many of the mountain woods of Central Europe as 

 well as in the Alps. It is occasionally found in England. 



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