36O THE ALPINE FLORA 



raceme of close, viscid, blue-violet heads. July-Sept- 

 ember. Cool places in mountain districts. Up to 

 1700 m. 



JYt. Plumieri, which grows on cool mountain limestone 

 slopes, is distinguished by glabrous, slightly glaucous 

 leaves, a stem absolutely glabrous and branching into a 

 broad corymb of fine capitules of very beautiful, reddish- 

 blue dandelion flowers. In its native home it grows 

 about 3 ft. high, but will double this under cultivation. 



The sow-thistles are perhaps the most effective of the 

 coarser Composite but can, of course, only be grown in 

 wild parts. Aridity and sun, or shade come alike to 

 them and they will spread only too rampantly without 

 attention. 



Lactuca 



L. perennis. Very glabrous, bluish, with leaves cut 

 into toothed lobes ; stem short, much branched, bearing 

 loosely corymbose heads; flower heads numerous, large, 

 reddish-blue, only opening in the sun and not unlike 

 those of wild Chicory; 1 have found a variety with white 

 flowers in the upper Queyras valley. April-September. 

 Dry, stony, sunny places in mountains. To be treated 

 as respectfully as Mulgedium, with which it is often 

 confused. 



Hypochaeris 



These are plants with yellow flowers in very large 

 heads and are found here and there in the Alps. There 

 are two different species. 7/. uniflora (fi. helvetica); 

 leaves oblong, toothed, larger than those of the Dandelion, 

 less deeply cut, pubescent; stem hairy, the lower part 

 leaved; one capitule, very large, yellow; higher pastures 



