414 THE ALPINE FLORA 



insignificant weeds, several are useful garden plants, some 

 dwarf and charming such as P. affine, of deep green 

 leaves and rosy crimson flowers, the rosy-pink P. vacci- 

 nifolium and P. sphxrostachyum, all Himalayan in origin, 

 some are veritable giants, as the famous rampant climber 

 from Bokhara, P. baldschuanicum, or the noble Japanese 

 bog plants, P. cuspidatum and sachalinense. From the 

 Alps comes 



P. Bistorta* (PL XC). Bistort, Snake-root. The 

 flower is the neat raceme of bright pink, or sometimes of 

 carmine, which brightens the cool grasslands of the Alps 

 and Jura, in the alpine zone. The thick, tuberous 

 rootstock is twice twisted into the shape of an S, and has 

 a very strong and acridly astringent taste. Used as an 

 astringent. 



But the one true jewel hereabouts, a diminutive, wee 

 little shrub with fragant coloured flowers and funnel- 

 shaped perianth, comes from the shrubby or subshrubby 

 Order of Thymeleae. The members of this Order are 

 distinguished by their fibrous and very tenacious bark; 

 by alternate, exstipulate leaves ; a calyx of coloured, 

 rarely green, sepals, with four equal lobes ; the eight 

 stamens are set in two ranks on very short filaments ; 

 there is a solitary style. The bark, leaves and fruit, when 

 fleshy, contain exceedingly acrid, vesicant juices. 



Daphne 



Eng.: Spurge Laurel; Fr. : Daphne; Ger.: Seidelpast. 



D. Cneorum (PI. XCI) : Thymelee des Alpes, Stein- 

 roschen. A sub-shrub forming a trailing evergreen 

 cushion, with prostrate, much divided branches, naked 

 below, leaved above; flowers of beautiful, vivid rose, 

 very fragrant, the exterior of the corolla-tube downy. 



