SWISS FLOWERS. 43 



The separate flowers of these are not stalked at all, or very 

 shortly so, but they form a loose kind of head, having the 

 form of two umbels, different from the dense balls with 

 which we are familiar in some of the trefoils, and have short 

 stipules at the base of the umbels. The flowers are long 

 and pointed, not opening wide, and the divisions of the 

 calyx are unequal, with rather awl-shaped teeth. The 

 leaves are in threes, and rise from long narrow and strongly- 

 veined leaflets. Frequently met with in the pasturages of 

 the high Alps. 



27. Dryas octopetala. 



(PLATE XVIL) 



This flower (Fig. .27) is one of the mountain-gems. 

 Found on our own mountains, particularly on those of 

 Scotland, it is frequently met with on the Jura and the 

 Alps. The flower is something like that of a large Straw- 

 berry, creamy in colour, with very many yellow stamens, 

 having, however, eight petals and eight sepals ; hence its 

 second name. Its growth is exceedingly pretty ; its reddish 

 half-woody stems creep along the ground, and give forth, 

 here and there, tufts of small, dark, bluntly-notched leaves, 

 on stalks longer than themselves, for they do not much 

 exceed an inch. These leaves are supposed to have a re- 



