ANDROSACE. 
type, and even more fluffily silver; its sheeny tidy clumps may be 
seen in the open stony ground along the limestone ridges of the Kara- 
wanken summits, in company with Ranunculus Traunfellnert, Alyssum 
ovirense (Wulfenianum), and Gentiana Froelichii. A. v. villosissima, 
from Afghanistan, has runners almost woody, very short stems, very 
dense, very woolly rosettes of leaves which, from being bright green 
and heavily vested in white hairs, ultimately lose them all and turn 
asad grey; A. v. robusta and A. v. Jacquemontiana are two variable 
Indian forms, of which A. v. Jacquemontiana has rose-pink flowers, 
and a clothing of long hairs, not silvery so much as russety-white ; 
others more or: less remote, variable and obscure, are bisulca and 
incana from China, and minute dasyphylla from the whole distribu- 
tion of the species, dividing again into sub-varieties of its own, glabrata 
being a smoother form from Bithynian Olympus, and globiferoeides a 
stronger plant from Lebanon, with fat rosettes, smoothish outside and 
woolly within, and stemless flowers very fine and large. In all its 
range A. villosa belongs not so much to the alpine turf, like A. Chamae- 
jasme, as to higher levels in the open screes and stony places on the 
necks of the mountains, always most especially, if not invariably, on 
the limestone mountains. It is a local plant, but like many local 
plants abundant where found; the limestone Alps of Styria are as 
thick with the type as are those of the Karawanken with its variety 
arachnoidea. Like most species of world-wide distribution, inured to 
every sort of difficulty and triumphant over all, A. villosa has a most 
robust and hearty nature. In all light good soils, well-drained, in 
every garden it will readily thrive, and is most especially suited to 
glorify the fine moraine, where its silvers associate delicately with the 
violets of Viola cenisia and V. Dubyana. However, in climates where 
the winter is very wet, it will be as well to look on that silver with a - 
protecting eye when November begins her sullen weeping. A pane of 
glass over the tuft will keep it gleaming and fresh, preserving it from 
the clogging wet. It is only for its silk that A. villosa requires even 
so much care, not for any fault in its temper and constitution. 
A. Watkinsit. See under A. sarmentosa. 
A. Wulfeniana is a very rare species from the non-calcareous moun- 
tains of the Eastern Alps, where it forms mats not unlike those of 
Silene acaulis in general effect, the leaves of the rosettes being narrow, 
pointed, sharp, bright green, and perfectly smooth but for a few stellar 
hairs at the edge and tip. Even if not collected from high slate and 
granite ridges—as on the Hisenhut—it can easily be told from the 
other rose-flowered Aretias with which it might be confused: from 
A. Charpentiert by the utter lack of down upon its bright green leaves, 
59 
