118 SWISS FLOWERS. 



flower-bracts soon fall off, there are no little bulbs, and 

 the stamens are all equal. Leaves thin and flat, lily-like, 

 and embracing the stem with their winged stalks, not nearly 

 equal in length to the flower-stalk. Not uncommon. 

 Woods of the plains and the mountains. Many of the 

 Alliums are of a beautiful rose or purple colour. 



98. Luzula.— Woodrush. 



(PLATE LVL) 



The Woodrushes are more like Grasses than Rushes, both 

 in their leaves and in their growth, but they have six stamens 

 instead of the three that usually mark Grasses, and their 

 heads of blossom are flatter. 



L. nivea (Fig. 98) is perhaps one of the most pleasing ; for, 

 whereas the colour of most of them is yellowish or brownish, 

 this is a pretty white, though the divisions are scaly, and it 

 has more distinct flowers than many of the Woodrushes. 

 The plant is slender and elegant, the stalks being very thin, 

 and the leaves narrow. At a foot or a foot-and-a-half high 

 the stem breaks into a kind of umbel, with little stalks 



