352 THE ALPINE FLORA 



cold in the high Alps the liquor from a few boiled leaves 

 drunk while hot acts like a charm. The poison Absinthe 

 is distilled from A. absinthium, common on dry slopes of 

 the granitic Alps. 



Dans le calme desert des Alpes souveraines, 



Au sein des rocs brises, sur les hauteurs sereines, 



Pres du sommet glace, 

 Fleurit 1'Armoise aux fins epis d'or pale ; 

 L'arome exquis que son feuillage exhale 



Ranime un cceur lasse. 



G. BEAUVERD. 



Achillea 



Eng. : Yarrow; Tr. : Achillee; Ger. : Schafgarbe. 



The eponymous hero of this genus has not, so far as 

 garden value goes, been honoured in his namesakes, for 

 in the alpine Achilleas that aristocratic stamp of dwarf 

 and compact neatness which is so marked a characteristic 

 of plants from high elevations is far to seek. The fine 

 jagged silver of Austrian Clavennx and the prostrate snow 

 sheet of Italian rupestris are valuable in carpet work or 

 for edgings; these with moschata, the Greecian agerati- 

 folia and umbellata and the Balkan serbica will suffice for 

 an alpine garden. The fernlike foliage and yellow corymbs 

 of tomentosa do well in the forefront of a border and 

 Ptarmica* is excellent for cutting. But most are coarse, 

 leggy weeds. In fact all have a tendency to become 

 lank, which must be thwarted by poor, sandy soil, 

 frequent division and replanting, and periodic dressings 

 of grit. The usual precautions advised for downy genera 

 are necessary. The genus is distinguished by tubular 

 ray-flowers, the disk-flowers, in one rank, being ligulate 

 witH Founded tips to the blades; the capitules are small, 

 in corymbs which may be either compact or loose. They 



