58 Flora of Shetland 



A. rubella (Alpine Sandwort). A few 

 specimens were gathered by the writer 

 on the serpentine slope immediately to the 

 north of Baltasound and also near the Loch 

 of Watlee, Unst 



Not having had the opportunity of previ- 

 ously studying this plant out of the herbarium, 

 it was at first thought to be A. verna, a plant 

 with which the editor was familiar as being not 

 unfrequent in some portions of the Queen's 

 Park, Edinburgh. Closer observation, how- 

 ever, dissipated this belief, as the specimens 

 gathered in Unst were markedly different 

 from the salient features of A. verna. 



A. rubella grows from 3-4 inches ; is 

 single-flowered ; and in 1901 was found to 

 have changed colour to a reddish - brown 

 during the summer heat. The stems, which 

 are numerous, were downy ; leaves linear 

 subulate ; petals elliptic-lanceolate ; sepals 

 lanceolate and very acute; styles four, though 

 in one case five. Though distinct from verna, 

 A. rubella seems to be but a variation of the 

 former. Beeby, in Scot. Nat. 1887, mentions 

 finding var. hirta near Baltasound. With this 

 last, the writer is not practically acquainted ; 

 but, while not finding any specimens in the 



