SWISS FLOWERS. 9S 



indeed, it is sometimes called M. nana — but larger than the 

 largest of them, and with a golden eye. They grow in a 

 few-flowered spike, with dark bracteas between them. The 

 whole plant, with its thickly- matted, narrow, lanceolate, 

 leaves, rises scarcely more than an inch above the ground. 

 It looks like a patch of Silene acaulis, or Androsace Heerii, 

 in blue instead of pink. Rare ; on the heights of granite- 

 mountains of Valais, Tessin, Saas, Zermatt, Bernese Ober- 

 land, Mont Cenis, Engadine. 



73 and 74. Androsace. 



(PLATES XL. and XLL) 



A most beautiful and interesting Swiss family, princi- 

 pally found on very high ground. Whether it be that the 

 species are rare, or that they have not been sufficiently well 

 studied, there seems considerable difficulty in making them 

 clearly out ; they are set down at a dozen or more. There 

 are five divisions to the limb of the petal, which is rather 

 contracted at the throat ; stamens five. The flowers some- 

 times grow in a few-flowered umbel ; sometimes they are 

 sessile, or on very short stalks, and quite cover the foliage. 

 The leaves are narrow, and very often in the form of little 

 rosettes. A. Helvetica, Mr. Robinson says, ** forms close 

 cushions, about half an inch high, of diminutive ciliated 



