OXYTROPIS. 



0. neglecta may -well deserve its fate, differing only as it does from 

 0. hip. onica by having its foliage hairy to the point of being velvety. 

 At the same time, so beautiful is 0. montana that it is as well (short 

 of a proved personal dislike) for every one to reserve his own judgment 

 upon species so nearly allied to it as 0. neglecta and 0. lapponica. 



0. persica lives beside the snow-lakes, 10,000 feet up in the Persian 

 mountains, where it forms very dense and densely-silvered silken 

 cusliions that emit stems of a couple of inches or so, each canying some 

 half a dozen violet flowers in a round head. 



0. podocarpa is quite dwarf and depressed, but turning almost 

 smooth from its first inclination to hairiness. It carries its purple 

 blossoms in pairs on stems among the leaves, and ranges from Cali- 

 fornia into the farthest North. 



0. pyrenaica stands close to 0. neglecta, and gives us another warn- 

 ing against continuing to despise Cinderella. For this is again a most 

 beautiful thing, with 0. montana the only one to be often seen in 

 cultivation. It is all covered in silvery-silk velvet, sending up here 

 and there frail tufts of foliage with fine long leaves made up of pointed 

 leaflets ; among the leaves come up the stems, some 3 or 4 inches 

 high, ending hi a loose bunch of big lavender-blue flowers, at first 

 nodding and then all bending the same way — this whole group, it 

 will be noticed, having a weaker and more rambling habit than the 

 concise and tuff et -forming 0. montana. And, in any case, it will be 

 worth while to grow even 0. neglecta on the strength of its acknow- 

 ledged resemblance to this beauty. 



0. Richardsonii is the species sometimes sent out as 0. splendens. 

 It comes from the mountain valleys of the Central Rockies, and grows 

 a foot high or more, all silvery-silky, erect and spreading, with a great 

 number of spike-like heads of large and refulgent bright -blue flowers, 

 erect and spreading in their cluster. 



0. splendens is 0. Richardsonii. 



0. sungarica is an obscure name. The plant should be a silky 

 mat with large pink flowers. 



0. triflora (sometimes reckoned only a form of 0. Qavdinii) is 

 among the choicest jewels — a neat wee wandering mat, after the habit 

 of 0. neglecta and 0. lapponica, but quite minute and condensed aid 

 fine, with most dainty stems, of 2 inches or so, springing airily up 

 among the delicate foliage, and each canying just two or three v< rj 

 and brilliant violet butterflies, standing apart from each other, 

 and of colour much richer than in its parallels. (Ea£ i in Alps, at the 

 usual alpine elevations, in bare and rocky places on the primary 

 formal; 



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