86 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Screes and limestone rocks. June to August. Very local. 

 Distribution. South-East of France (Drome, Vaucluse, Alpes 

 Maritimes). 



^ETHIONEMA R.Br. 



Sepals erect. Petals equal. Filaments broadly winged. Silicules 

 suborbicular, emarginate, compressed, dehiscent, with keeled 

 valves and broadly winged. Flowers usually pink, veined, small. 

 Leaves thick, entire, oboval or lanceolate. Glabrous, perennial 

 plants. 



About 40 species, inhabiting Southern Europe, Western Asia, 

 and N. Africa, several of which are now cultivated in this country. 

 They require deep soil and a sunny position. 



Mthionema saxatile R.Br. 



Stem ascending, often curved and prostrate, almost woody at 

 the base, 8-12 inches high, simple or branched, glabrous and 

 glaucous like the whole plant, very leafy. Leaves leathery, often 

 of a violet tinge, shortly petioled, entire, the lower ones obovate, 

 almost sessile, the upper lanceolate-acute. Sepals sessile, with 3 

 nerves. Flowers white, mauve, or flesh-coloured. Fruiting-spike 

 elongated, with spreading pedicels. Silicules rounded at the base, 

 emarginate, with 2 many-seeded cells. Style shorter than the lobes. 



Rocky places and debris in the mountains and sub- Alps, especially 

 on limestone. April to June. 



Distribution. Jura, East and South of France, Switzerland 

 (rather rare), Cevennes, Corbieres, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Southern 

 and Central Europe ; Algeria, Asia Minor. 



BISCUTELLA L. 



Sepals usually equal. Flowers yellow. Silicule circular and 

 separating into 2 distinct i-seeded valves. Style long. A genus of 

 about 5 species only. 



Biscutella Icevigata L. 



Root tapering, branched, tufted, with many heads. Stem erect, 

 branched, glabrous or with stiff hairs on the lower part. Leaves 

 very variable, entire or more or less dentate, acute, generally hairy, 

 dark green, shining, the lowest leaves lanceolate and narrowed into a 

 foot-stalk, the upper lanceolate or linear, sessile, with rounded, 

 semi - amplexicaul base. Flowers yellow, fragrant. Silicules of 

 two circular flattened lobes, with winged membranous border. 

 Style about as long as the diameter of one lobe. 



A polymorphic plant, generally considered Alpine, for it is very 

 frequent in the Alps up to 8000 feet, but it is also found in un- 

 cultivated and rocky places throughout Central and Southern 

 Europe from Belgium to Portugal and Roumania. May to August. 



