ANDROSACE. 
and the flesh-pink blossoms, nearly half an inch across, are carried in 
heads, the length of each flower’s stem varying considerably in different 
specimens ; and a sure means of telling this species from A. sar- 
mentosa in any form is that the little leaves or bracts that spread 
out below the flower-head are of unequal size, some very small and 
others much larger, instead of all being equal as in sarmentosa. 
(Kumaon, Kashmir, Hazara, &c.) 
A. pubescens carries us back again far up into the alpine mountains 
cold, for this is a beautiful and rather rare Aretia of the highest 
primary rocks, often mistaken for A. helvetica (which it exactly re- 
sembles in habit and pearly flowers), but easily to be known by the 
fact that its downy leaves are quite longer and narrower and more 
pointed, and stand up instead of curving inwards, so that the tuft 
has not the dense pincushiony effect of A. helvetica. It occurs, very 
sporadically, at great elevations, from the Pyrenees to the Glockner, 
and may be seen, among other high-alpines, in the gaunt topmost 
schistose and sandstone ridges of the Nunda and the Mont Lamet 
of the Mont Cenis, in situations exactly such as those in which on 
other hills you would expect A. helvetica. In cultivation A. pube- 
scens runs neck to neck with A. helvetica for comparative ease and 
happiness of temper; it is even thriving on the limestone Cliff at 
Ingleborough, and actually developing heartily from a chance seed- 
lng strayed into a most improbable mossy crevice on a shady 
rock, overhung with bushes of Daphne Laureola. 
A. pyrenaica is a most special small Aretia confined to the non- 
calcareous cliffs of the Central Pyrenees. It is a most distinct plant, 
forming very minute dense star-fishes of splayed-out foliage, in rosettes 
not crowded together, though forming a uniform cushion. The wee 
leaves of the rosette, blunt, longish, and narrow, are conspicuously 
curved and flattened outwards; and, though downy all over, have a 
characteristic special fringe of little glandular hairs. The flower-stems 
are long for the size of the tiny mass, coming up by ones or twos from 
each nucleus, and rising to the height of nearly half an inch, usually 
bending and curving, each carrying one white flower the same size as 
Helvetica’s, though a trifle starrier in outline. The look of the plant 
is unmistakable, the rosettes being so individual and the cushion so 
shallow-domed, even if you have not the luck to see it for yourself in 
the highest cliffs of the Port d’Oo, the Pic Campviel, or the Pic de 
Salettes. In cultivation A. pyrenaica offers no special difficulty, under 
the conditions of care exacted by all high-alpine Aretias. In such 
circumstances it lives successfully and flowers well, not having by 
any means the dangerous temper of A. imbricata and A. Heeri. 
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