ASTRANTIA. 
snows of the Sierra Nevada. This, like A. macrorrhizus, is a humble 
dense mat, only silky at first. The flowers range from pale pink to 
purple, carried in globular heads, on stems of not more than 4 inches. 
A. Ruprechtii suggests an Oxytropis. It is hoary and almost stem- 
less, with leaves 5 inches long and the foot-stalks of the blossom-heads 
half a foot. The flowers are of violet and yellow. (East Caucasus.) 
Still smaller than this in all its parts is A. hyalolepis. 
A. sanguinolentus has flower-stems rather shorter than the leaves, 
lying weakly down, the flowers being white, but with a blood-red 
keel. (Stony places of Caucasus and Georgia.) 
A, sericophyllus, from the pine-region of Kithairon, is woody at the 
base, with graceful long peduncles, and Pea-blossoms of blue and 
white, contrasting well with the hoary vesture of silk that gives the 
plant its name. 
A. Shortianus (A. cyaneus) is almost stemless, very closely silver- 
silky, the foot-stalks of the heads not being as Jong as the leaves, while 
the flowers themselves are fine and large, of bright violet-blue. It is 
found in Wyoming and Montana. 
A. simplicifolius occurs in the dry plains and barrens of the central 
Rockies, forming a close mat of silk, into which nestle heads of two 
or three violet blossoms. 
A. striatus, from the American plains, has flowers of yellow, tipped 
with purple (a special leguminous trick that usually results in 
dowdiness of effect), followed by pods like little plums. 
A, utahensis is prostrate and woolly, with dark purple blooms. 
A, zerdanus forms a dense hoary-grey tuft, matted with many 
short shoots in the stony places of South Persia, at 12,000 or 13,000 
feet. It is a lovely sight, especially when the heads of brilliant blue- 
violet blossom just stand up above the mass on their stems of 2 inches 
or so. 
Astrantia makes an oasis of attractiveness in the family of 
Umbelliferae ; not that, to the casual eye, their charm suggests any 
connection with that usually most uncharming (except for their 
foliage and culinary or veneficent properties) family of imconspicuous- 
flowered tiresome weeds. - 
A. Biebersteiniana is in all respects A. major divided by half. The 
radical leaves are three-cleft with the two side-lobes cleft in two, and 
deep-toothed, while the middle one remains a simple oblong. It 
occupies all the Caucasus, and like A. major deepens into more or less 
pinkish forms, which in this species are apt to be specially pure and 
bright. It grows eagerly in cool open soil, and blooms in summer. 
A. carniolica is yet another pretty species, which I suspect of being 
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