52 8WI8S FLOWERS. 



a crimson-chocolate colour, but become a bright purple when 

 dry. The stigma is large and conspicuous, with four white 

 divisions, and rises from the very long germen, which looks 

 almost like a thick stem below the flower. The eight 

 stamens have at first a bluish tinge ; they are inserted with 

 the petals. The seed-pods are very long and narrow ; the 

 seeds are numerous aad crowned with silky plumes of hair. 

 The leaves, which are of various lengths, with only a central 

 vein, rise from one point in little tufts along the stem, much 

 like those of Rosemary, whence one of its names. In 

 valleys of the Alps, on the banks and in the bed of torrents r 

 Zermatt. 



34. Sempervivum. — House-Leek. 



(PLATE XX.) 



The curious, though not very beautiful, form of the 

 House-Leek is common enough in England, nor is it less sa 

 in Switzerland ; but our figure represents one of the charms 

 of that country, S. arachnoideum (Fig 34). The rosettes 

 of leaves are very much smaller and finer than those of the 

 common House-Leek, and covered, especially when young, 

 with a fine white down, almost like cobweb, reaching from 

 one rosette to another ; whence the name. This, however. 



