184 THE HIGH ALPINE PLANTS 



of the High Alpines, on account of the wonderful 

 bright, azure blue of the flowers, for which it is 

 famous. It is closely allied to the Forget-me-nots, 

 one species of which, Myosotis alpestris, Schmidt, is 

 frequent in the Alpine and High Alpine regions. 

 They so closely resemble one another, that the 

 Forget-me-not is sometimes mistaken for the Eritri- 

 chium. The two are not uncommonly associated. 



The plant forms rather loose cushions of highly 

 branched, leafy shoots crowded together. The leaves 

 are covered with shining, silky hairs, which are clearly 

 seen in the photograph on Plate XXXV., Fig. 1). 

 The cushions apparently attain to a considerable age, 

 for, like nearly all the High Alpines, the Eritrichium 

 is a perennial. A cushion thirty years old has been 

 recorded. The flower-stems are leafy and a few 

 inches in length. They bear, as a rule, from three to 

 six flowers, arranged in a complicated inflorescence. 



THE HIGH ALPINE ALSINES. 



There are two High Alpine species of the genus 

 Alsine (natural order Caryophyllaceae, the Pink 

 family) which are cushion plants. The Dwarf Alsine 

 (Alsine sedoides, Fradl^Cherleria sedoides, Linn. = 

 Arenaria Cherleria, Hook.f.) (Plate XXXV., Fig. 2) 

 builds very compact, hemispherical cushions composed 

 of an enormous number of small branches, clothed 

 with awl-shaped leaves placed in opposite pairs. The 

 flowers are interesting from the fact that they are 

 small and comparatively inconspicuous, and thus the 



