ANDROSACE. 
where, snuggled securely into the crevices, it masses its rosettes of 
rather broad, pointed foliage, perfectly smooth and of the glossiest 
green. The rosettes are oddly large for this group, and might suggest 
those of A. hedraeantha, but that the leaves are longer, about one-half 
to two-thirds of an inch, stiffer, more pointed, grooved, recurving, and of 
so brilliant a polish. The flowers are carried, of course, lonely on each 
quite short stemling ; they are white, and almost unduly small for the 
plant (no bigger than those of wee-rosetted Helvetica), which, though so 
choice, is perfectly easy of cultivation in any choice crevice or moraine. 
A. mucronifolia (highest grassy crests of Tibet, R.F. 1914) is a 
compact glorified Chamaejasme, forming a lax low mass, without 
runners, each shoot being thickly set with minute bud-like globules of 
leaves, which are wee, overlapping, incurved, and fleshy, each globule 
only being about a third of an inch through. The little stems are 
half an inch high, carrying from three to six blossoms in round heads, 
covering the whole cushion in domed snowdrifts, fragrant of haw- 
thorn and exquisitely beautiful. (See Appendix.) 
A. muscoeides is a delicious remote Aretia from the high in- 
hospitable cliffs of Ladak, most curious in habit, forming rambling 
mossy masses of frail naked branches, set at intervals with bunches 
of tiny leaves, and branching again and yet again, each time with 
poodle-tuffets of foliage at intervals, till each shoot ends with a pair 
of flowers, large and sturdy for the size of the moss-mass—which 
may readily be known, by those fortunate enough to see it, not only 
by its habit, and its rufous or ochreous stems, but by the grey-green 
tone of its foliage, unique among the Asiatic Aretias, but recalling 
that of Douglasia V italiana. 
A. obtusifolia is a species closely nile to A. Chamaejasme, from 
the European Alps, but considerably less attractive. It forms a clump 
of rosettes, the leaves being long and blunt, not silky at all, and much 
greener than in Chamaejasme, while the stems are also much taller 
and the tuft not at all rambling, throwing no runners. So much taller 
are the scapes, indeed, attaining some 6 inches at their tallest, that 
the flowers, already rather small for the size of their calyces (and 
smaller than those of A. Chamaejasme), look a little mean by compari- 
son with the plant’s stature, and are of a rather impure white. In 
Switzerland this is not a common species, but is found on the granites 
above Arolla (and indeed, throughout the rest of its distribution 
through the Eastern Alps to Transylvania, seems to prefer the granitic 
formations at least as markedly as A. Chamaejasme prefers the cal- 
careous). It varies, however, greatly in stature and form, and one 
of its most marked varieties, the dwarfed, one- or two-flowered A. 
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