90 SWISS FLOWERS. 



flashes out like a blue gem, lost iu the grass. This is G. 

 nivalis, of the same shape as Verna and Bavarica, scarcely 

 half an inch across when fully expanded, but of a brilliancy 

 which it is impossible to describe. It does not grow in 

 tufts ; sometimes a little stem will arise singly from its root, 

 standing all by itself ; sometimes several stems will branch 

 out from the root or from some central stem, the whole not 

 rising more than about two inches, each branch terminating 

 in a flower, the calyx of which reaches up about three- 

 quarters of the tube. All the above three are found on 

 high mountain broken ground, and pastures. Perhaps 

 G. verna descends the lowest. 



There is another division of Gentians, distinguished by 

 having a hairy fringe in the mouth of the tube — as G. Cam- 

 panula and G. campestris, and especially the beautiful G. 

 ciliata, which is like a G. verna fringed, and blossoms late. 



70. Lithospermum.— GromAA/^ell. 



(PLATE XXV.) 



Though by no means equal in colour to the Gentians, 

 L. purpureo-cceruleum (Fig. 70) is of a very pretty blue, 

 with a touch of pink in it. The tube of the corolla is much 

 longer than the hairy, deeply five-cleft, calyx. The corolla 

 expands into a five-lobed limb, with five little swellings 



