CARYOPHYLLACEiE, 111 



SPECIES III— A LSINE RUBELLA. Wahl. 

 Plate CCXLII. 



Arenaria rubella, Rook in Parry's Second "Voyage, Ap. p. 391 ; and Fl. Bar. Arn. 



Vol. I. p. 100. Hook. & Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. G6. Bon, Eng. Bot. Sup. 



No. 2638. 

 A. quadrivalvis, R. Brown, in Parry's First Voyage, Ap. p. 271. 

 A. verna, var. Benth. Haudbook Brit. Fl. p. 122. 

 A verna, var. D. glacialis, Led. Fl. Ross. Vol. I. p. 350. 



Rootstock branched only at the end, the divisions producing 

 ascendina: flowerins: stems and numerous rather short decumhent 

 barren shoots. Leaves rather crowded at the apex of the barren 

 shoots and at the base of the stem ; those towards the upper and 

 middle part of the stem remote ; all short, strapshaped-linear, 

 rather obtuse, strongly 3-nerved. Bracts ellijitical, almost entirely 

 membranous. Flowers in a terminal cyme, generally reduced to 

 1, and never exceeding 3 flowers. Pedicels a little longer than 

 the calyx when mature. Sepals lanceolate-oblong, acute, strongly 

 3-nerved, with broad membranous margins. Petals a little shorter 

 than the sepals, lanceolate-oblong, abruptly contracted into the 

 short claw. Capsule slightly exceeding the sepals. Seeds roundish- 

 reniform, slightly rugose with indistinct raised dots. 



Among the debris of Alpine rocks. Very rare. Apparently 

 confined to a few of the Breadalbane mountains in Perthshire, and 

 Ben Hope in Sutherlandshire. 



Scotland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Ptootstock woody, imbedded in the micaceous debris in which 

 the plant grows, and dividing repeatedly in a dichotomous manner 

 at the apex, forming tufts 1 to 3 inches across, appearing much 

 less compact and more spread out on the ground than those of 

 A. verna, from the leaves being less crowded, and the barren shoots 

 longer in proportion to the size of the plant. The leaves are also 

 more flaccid, broader, and with the sides less tapering to the apex 

 than in that plant, and the flowering stems project but little beyond 

 the rest of the tuft, being rarely more than 1 inch long. The bracts 

 are less tapering towards the apex. The flowers are mostly solitary, 

 even 2 being of rare occurrence ; and they are much less con- 

 spicuous from the petals being not only shorter, but very much 

 narrower than those of A. verna. The styles and valves of the capsule 

 vary from 3 to 5 in numbev, but are most commonly 4i. The seeds 

 are considerably smaller and more orbicular than in A. verna, the 

 colour paler and yellower, and the raised points on the surface 

 much less prominent. Whole plant pale yellowish green, approach- 



