THALAMIFLOR^ 131 



Robin ascends to nearly 2000 ft. in the Highlands. 

 It occurs also in the Channel Islands. 



The habitat of this plant is moist or marshy 

 meadows and pastures, damp places generally, copses, 

 and ditches, or borders of streams. It is associated 

 with Marsh Marigold, Cuckoo-flower, Lesser Spear- 

 wort, Square-stalked St. John's Wort, and other 

 plants that prefer a damp or moist habitat. It is to 

 be found on clayey and loamy soils where there is an 

 association of the Common Rush, with Meadow 

 Sweet, Creeping Jenny, etc. The marsh-formation 

 is another habitat, and it occurs in the fen associa- 

 tion of East Norfolk, in the valley fen, and amongst 

 Arctic Alpine vegetation where subalpine plants grow 

 in the pasture zone. 



The habit is erect, with a short, slender rootstock, 

 little branched, the stem brownish-olive, smooth, or 

 rough above, or downy below, the hairs bent down- 

 wards, and sticky above to keep ants away from the 

 flowers. The radical leaves are stalked, oblong to 

 lance-shaped, with a long point. The stem-leaves 

 are narrow. 



The flowers are pink or rose-coloured, drooping, in 

 loose, terminal, branched panicles, on short, slender 

 stalks, the calyx having five short teeth and ten 

 purple veins. The petals are four-cleft, the crown 

 bi-partite, with erect, awl-like, palmately spreading 

 segments, the two middle the longest, with an acute 

 tooth in the middle of the outer margin, and long 

 two-fid scales. The capsule is nearly round, and 



