278 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Ruscus L. 



^The only European monocotyledonous plants which are shrub- 

 like and almost woody. A small European and North African genus 

 known by its stiff, shrub-like habit and almost prickly leaves. 



Ruscus aculeatus L. Butcher's Broom. 



A stiff, dark green, much-bracted shrub 2-4 feet high. Leaves 

 very numerous, ovate, ending in a prickly point. Flowers small, 

 greenish white, apparently sessile in the middle of the ' leaves ' or 

 cladodes, which are really leaf-like branches. Actually the flowers 

 are borne on pedicels from the axil of the leaf and closely adnate 

 to the surface with a minute scaly bract under the flowers. Berry 

 red, large. 



Woods, hedges, and rocky thickets. March to May. 



Distribution. Central and Southern Europe, Western and 

 Northern Asia, N. Africa. Introduced into Britain. 



ERYTHRONIUM L. 

 Erythronium Dens-canis L. Dog-tooth Violet. 



Flowers solitary on a leafless scape, large, pink spotted with white 

 and yellow, the 6 acute perianth-segments recurved abruptly, the 

 3 exterior ones furnished at the base with a little tooth on each 

 side. Leaves 2, opposite, radical, oblong, or elliptic, spotted with 

 red. Seed-vessel a 3-celled capsule. 



Thickets and wooded hills in the south. March, April. In 

 Switzerland only native in Tessin, though naturalised near Geneva, 

 etc. 



Distribution.- Apennines, Southern Alps, Cevennes and Central 

 plateau of France, Corbieres, Pyrenees ; Central and Southern 

 Europe ; Caucasus, Siberia, Japan. 



LILIUM L. 



Bulbs scaly. Stem leafy. Flowers large. Stamens hypogynous 

 or attached to the base of the perianth-lobes. Anthers versatile. 

 Fruit a 3-celled capsule. 



About 50 species inhabiting temperate regions of the northern 

 hemisphere, and particularly Japan. 



Lilium Martagon L. Turk's-cap Lily. (Plate XXXII.) 



2-3 feet high. Leaves in whorls of 6 or 8. Flowers dull pink or 



lilac, spotted with dark purple, pendent, with recurved segments. 

 Alpine meadows and pastures and bushy places up to 7300 feet, 



especially on limestone ; local, but sometimes quite numerous. 



June to August. 



Distribution. Central and Southern Europe, Caucasus, Siberia, 



Japan. 



