SWISS FLOWERS. *! 



are deeply cleft, looking almost like tea. The foliage is 

 very different from that of our garden species, which is 

 white and downy, and valued on that account ; that of 

 C. latifolium is smooth, and of a bright green. Found 

 among the debris of schist in the Alps. 



25. Oxytropis. 



(PLATE XVL) 



The Oxytropis brings us to quite a new tribe, which, 

 though it is fairly represented in Switzerland, is not par- 

 ticularly characteristic of the country. On the other side 

 of the Alps, in Italy, the number and variety of the Papilio- 

 naceous flowers are very great. They are called by this name 

 in natural divisions of botany from the supposed resem- 

 blance of the flowers to a butterfly, and they are still better 

 known by the name of pea and pea-shaped, forming the class 

 Didynamia of Linnaeus. The ten stamens are all joined 

 together the greater part of their length; at last one is 

 separated from the rest, and the whole are covered by the 

 two lower petals. The five petals are very unequal ; the 

 larger one is called the standard, the two side ones wings, 

 and the remaining two, which, though separate at the 

 bottom are joined at the edges and cover the stamens, 

 are, from the sharp ridge they make, called the keel. The 



