42O THE ALPINE FLORA 



a 1'araignee". This is a diminutive form of the two 

 species already mentioned ; habit tufted ; stems slender, 

 hard, filiform, branched, almost leafless; flowers small, 

 white; anthers saffron ; panicle large and branched. June- 

 August. Very ornamental for rocks and dry banks of 

 gardens. 



Lloydia 



L. serotina. A small, lowly, winsome plant; stems 

 thin and slender, rising from a very delicate tuft of linear 

 leaves, as fine as grass ; flower solitary, 5-cleft, white 

 with pink or yellow spots on the interior. Cool, shady 

 slopes of the High-alps ; 1800-2600 m. 



Veratrum 



"Eng. : False Hellebore ; Fr. : Veratre, Veraire, Hellebore blanc ; 

 Ger. : Germer. 



V. album (PL XCV). A stiff and stalwart plant 

 belonging to the Colchicaceae found in all mountain 

 pastures where it remains undisturbed by the cattle which 

 refuse to touch it. It resembles the yellow Gentian 

 except for the alternate, deeply plicate leaves, the greenish 

 tinge of the flowers, which are 6-fid, in numerous 

 spikes forming a compact panicls. July-September; 

 pastures. 



V '. Lobelianum differs in that the flowers are green 

 within as well as without. In Y . nigrum the flowers are 

 smaller, more numerous, and blackbrown. July-August; 

 woody slopes and glades of the Frenh Alps, eastern 

 Switzerland and Tyrol. 



The Veratrums are most poisonous; the root contains 

 Veratrine, a very energetic and toxical emetic. It is 

 used for scabies and other skin affections and also for 



