THE ANDROSACES 73 



teristic plants of Alpine habitats. The genus does 

 not occur in Britain. These plants are well known 

 to horticulturists for their aversion to the plains, it 

 being very difficult, if not impossible, to cultivate some 

 of them in England. In the Swiss Alps there are 

 some eleven species, all much alike in external form. 

 Several of them are confined to the High Alpine 

 region, for the genus as a whole is strictly Alpine. 



The habit (Plate XIV., Fig. 2) is quite like that of 

 a Primula ; only, the plant as a whole is much smaller. 

 There is, just above the ground, the same little rosette 

 of leaves, from which springs a common flower-stalk 

 ending in an umbel of flowers. The corollas resemble 

 those of the Primula in shape. The flowers are, 

 however, distinguished by the fact that between 

 each of the five lobes of the petals, we find a little 

 scale, not unlike that which we have already noticed 

 in the case of some Gentians. These five scales tend 

 to narrow the entrance to the mouth of the corolla. 

 The Androsaces, except Vital's Androsace, do not 

 possess long-styled and short-styled flowers (p. 68). 



In the High Alpine species, the umbel is frequently 

 reduced to a single flower. This is a marked feature 

 in plants, which in the lower Alpine regions possess 

 inflorescences of several flowers. As we ascend higher i 

 and higher, the number of flowers in the inflorescence .\ 

 decreases, and finally only one remains. This is the il 

 case in the Saxifrages, the Harebells, and many other 

 genera besides the Androsaces. 



The flowers of most of the Swiss species are white, 



