62 SWISS FLOWERS. 



A purple and a red kind are mentioned as growing on the 

 dry hills of Tessin, but generally the species of Switzer- 

 land are pretty much the same as we have, only they often 

 grow more luxuriantly. As a general description, they are 

 climbing plants, whose weak stems manage to mount to a 

 considerable height ; they have whorled sessile leaves, and 

 white or yellow flowers, with the exception above mentioned. 

 These flowers, with their four stamens and four lobes to the 

 petals, grow in axillar or terminal cymes, which are some- 

 times nothing more than mere clusters of blossoms. Often, 

 however, they form large branching panicles, the little star- 

 like flowers thickly massed together, prettily making their 

 way over the rough bank, or wild rock, or through the 

 thick hedge. The distinctions between the species are 

 made according to the number of leaves in the whorls, 

 whether the panicles are terminal or axillary, whether the 

 fruit and the angles of the stem are rough or smooth, and 

 whether the corolla has a little point on the lobes of its 

 petals. Our figure (Fig. 43) represents G. mollugo, with 

 about eight leaves in its whorls, of which many varieties 

 have been made. It has been called lucidum, cinereum, 

 cristatum, according to the more or less narrow leaves, 

 the closeness or diflFusion of the panicle, the greater or less 

 prominence of the points of the corolla. It is, no doubt, one 

 of the handsomest of the white kinds, but it varies accord- 

 ing to situation. The panicles are chiefly terminal, with- 



