CLOVE PINK TRIBE 107 



3. Catchfly (Sildne). 



* Stems ttiffcd, short ; Jiowcrs solitary. 



1. Moss Campion, or Stemless Campion (»S'. acaiUis). — Stem much 

 branched, tufted; leaves narrow, fringed, keeled below; fiowei'-stalk single- 

 flowered ; petals crowned, and notched. Plant perennial. We have several 

 wild flowers which are called stemless, as the Stemless Thistle and Campion ; 

 but this is not because the stem is entirely absent, but because it is very 

 short. In this instance the flower-stalks are two or three inches high, and 

 this pretty Alpine Campion forms a dense matted turf, with its beautiful 

 bright purple flowers peeping up among the foliage like stars. It is never 

 seen on lowland ground, but is found only at the summits of our loftiest 

 British mountains. It is one of the loveliest ornaments, during June and 

 July, of the rocky parts of Snowdon, and on the Helvellyn side of Grisedale 

 Tarn, in Ciunberland, where — 



" Up among the mountains, 

 In soft and mossy cell, 

 By the silent springs and fountains 

 The lovely wild-flowers dwell." 



It is abundant on all the Scottish mountains ; its branching stems bear a 

 profusion of flowers, which vary sometimes to white, and are prized as alpine 

 flowers must be, not only for their own loveliness, but from their association 

 with the wildest and grandest scenery which earth can exhibit. Dr. J. H. 

 Balfour, in his notice of a botanical excursion made in the Highlands of 

 Scotland, gives us a graphic picture of the plants which adorn the alpine 

 tracts. " The alpine veronica," he says, " there displays its lovely blue 

 corolla on the verge of dissolving snows ; the forget-me-not of the mountain 

 summit, whose tints far excel those of its namesake of the brooks ; the 

 woodsia, with its tufted frond, adorning the clefts of the rocks ; the sunny 

 gentian, concealing its eye of blue in the ledges of the steep crags ; the 

 alpine astragalus, enlivening the turf with its purple clusters ; the lychnis, 

 choosing the stony and dry knoll for the evolution of its pink petals ; the 

 Sonclms midgedium, raising its stately stalk and azure head in spots which 

 try the enthusiasm of the adventurous collector ; the pale-flowered mountain 

 sorrel, confining itself to a single British cliff"; the azalea, forming a carpet 

 of the richest crimson ; the saxifrages, with their yellow, or white, or pink 

 blossoms, clothing the sides of the streams ; the saussurea and erigeron, 

 crowning the rocks with their purple and pink heads ; the purple cinquefoil, 

 blending its yellow flowers with the white of the alpine cerastiums, and the 

 bright blue of the starry veronica ; the Stemless Silene giving a pink and 

 velvety covering to the decomposing granite ; the yellow hawk weeds, whose 

 varied transition forms have furnished such a fertile source of dispute among 

 botanists ; the slender and delicate grasses ; the chickweeds, the sedges, and 

 the rushes, which spring up on the moist alpine summits ; the graceful ferns, 

 the tiny mosses with their urn-like thecae ; the crustaceous dry lichens, with 

 their spore-bearing apothecia : all these add such a charm to highland botany, 

 as to throw into comparative shade all the vegetation of the plains." 



14—2 



