CARTOPHYLLACE^. Ill 



SPECIES III.— A LSINE RUBELLA. Wahl. 

 Tlate CCXLII. 



Arenaria rubella, ffook in Pan7's Second Voyage, Ap. p. 391 ; and Fl. Bar. Am. 



Vol. I. p. 100. Hook &. Arn. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. CG. Don, Eng. Bot. Sup 



No. 2G38. 

 A. quadrivalvis, B. Brown, in Parry's First Voyage, Ap. p. 271. 

 A. verna, var. Benth. Handbook Brit. Fl. p. 122. 

 A verna, var. D. glacialis, Led. FL Ross. Vol. I. p. 350. 



Rootstock branched only at the end, the divisions producing 

 ascending flowering stems and numerous rather short decumbent 

 barren shoots. Leaves rather crowded at the ajiex of the barren 

 shoots and at the base of the stem ; those towards the upper and 

 middle part of the stem remote ; all short, strapshaped-linear, 

 rather obtuse, strongly 3-nerved. Bracts elliptical, almost entirely 

 membranous. Flowers in a terminal cyme, generally reduced to 

 1, and never exceeding 3 flowers. Pedicels a little longer than 

 the calyx when mature. Sepals lanceolate-oblong, acute, strongly 

 3-nerved, with broad membranous margins. Petals a little shorter 

 than the sepals, lanceolate-oblong, abruptly contracted into the 

 short claw. Capsule slightly exceeding the sepals. Seeds roundish- 

 reniform, slightly rugose with indistinct raised dots. 



Among the debris of Alpine rocks. Very rare. Apparently 

 confined to a few of the Breadalbane mountains in Perthshire, and 

 Ben Hope in Sutherlandshire. 



Scotland. Perennial. Autumn. 



Eootstock woody, imbedded in the micaceous debris in which 

 tlie plant grows, and dividing repeatedly in a dichotomous manner 

 at the apex, forming tufts 1 to 3 inches across, appearing much 

 less compact and more spread out on the ground than those of 

 A. verna, from the leaves being less crowded, and the barren shoots 

 longer in proportion to the size of the plant. The leaves are also 

 more flaccid, broader, and with the sides less tapering to the apex 

 than in that plant, and the flowering stems project but little beyond 

 the rest of the tuft, being rarely more than 1 inch long. The bracts 

 are less tapering toAvards the apex. The flowers are mostly solitary, 

 even 2 being of rare occurrence ; and they are much less con- 

 spicuous from the petals being not only shorter, but very much 

 narrower than those of A. verna. The styles and valves of the capsule 

 vary from 3 to 5 in numlier, but are most commonly 4. The seeds 

 are considerably smaller and more orbicular than in A. verna, the 

 colour paler and yellower, and the raised points on the surface 

 luuch less prominent. "Whole plant pale yellowish green, approach- 



