22 SWISS FLOWERS. 



one to three inches across^ more or less covered with soft 

 down ; involucre a little way down the stem, so much 

 divided as to look like moss, often with a reddish tinge ; 

 colour in Pulsatilla and Halleri (Fig. 3), purple, more or 

 less dark ; in Vernalis, white, often violet outside. Our 

 plant, A. Halleri, is found on high mountains : Findelen- 

 Glacier, Riffel, Mont Cenis. Varieties are named, according 

 as the flower is erect, its sepals more or less pointed, or the 

 plant more or less hairy. 



Then we have A. Alpina (Fig. 4), often to be met with, 

 growing to a much larger size than any of the above. The 

 stem is hairy, and the flower is not without its short down, 

 but this is far less a characteristic of the plant. The 

 involucre, too, is more leaf like, at a considerable distance 

 from the flower, and has even sometimes short stalks. Its 

 large white flowers, tinged with blue on the outside, are not 

 uncommon in the Jura and Alpine higher pastures. They 

 grow near the glacier of the Rhone in great luxuriance, 

 the tail heads of the seeds giving the plant quite a dififerent 

 appearance from the same when it is in blossom. Some- 

 times the flower has a pretty yellow tinge, and then goes by 

 the name of A. sulphurea. Its size depends very much on the 

 situation ; and it is strange to see the same that in the lower 

 regions was two or three inches across, scarcely more than 

 an inch when found on the bare side of the high mountains, 

 and rising not more than an inch or two from the ground. 



