72 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Arabis pumila Wulf. 



Root tapering, branched, with several crowns ; root-crowns often 

 resembhng stolons, tufted. Stem erect or ascending, 3-5 inches 

 high, simple, glabrous, or with fine hairs below. Leaves entire or 

 slightly toothed, acute or obtuse, with simple and forked hairs, or 

 only cihate ; root-leaves in a rosette, obovate or wedge-shaped, 

 gradually narrowed below ; stem-leaves linear or lanceolate, sessile. 

 Petals white, obovate-lanceolate, patent. Seed-vessel erect, com- 

 pressed. Seed surrounded by a membranous ring half the width 

 of the seed. 



Rocks and stony places in the calcareous Alps up to 8200 feet, 

 often descending to the sub-alpine region. Jime, July. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Alps, and Apennines. 

 Arabis perfoliata L. (Turritis glabra Lamk.). 



A biennial, glabrous and glaucous plant 2 to 3 feet high, robust. 

 Stem pubescent at the base. Radical leaves downy, dentate- 

 sinuate, in a rosette which soon withers; stem-leaves entire, 

 glabrous, auricled at the base. Flowers yellowish white. Sepals 

 equaUing the pedicels. Fruiting-spike very long, narrow, and 

 crowded. Siliquas long, compressed. Style very short. 



Hedges, woods, and pastures. May to July. 



Distribution. — Almost all Europe ; local in Switzerland and 

 Britain ; Western Asia as far as the Himalaya ; North America. 



Arabis Turrita L. Tower Cress. 



A tall, stiff, erect biennial, rough and hoary, with short stellate 

 or forked hairs. Radical leaves spreading and stalked ; stem- 

 leaves oblong-lanceolate, sessile, and clasping the stem by their 

 rounded auricles, all slightly toothed. Flowers small, dirty yellowish 

 white. Pods 3 inches long, on short erect pedicels, all curved down- 

 wards to one side, in a long, dense, nodding raceme. 



Rocks and stony woods on limestone mountains. May to July. 



Distribution. — Central and Southern Europe including the Jura 

 and Switzerland ; Western Asia, Algeria, Australian Alps. 



Introduced into Britain on walls at Oxford, Cambridge, etc. 



Arabis hirsuta, A. muralis Bert., A. auriculata Lamk., A. saxatilis 

 AIL, and A. arcuata Shuttle., are also occasionally met with in the 

 sub-Alps of Switzerland and Central Europe. 



Arabis serfyllifoUa Vill. 



Stem fiexuose, and, like the leaves, whitish grey from branched 

 hairs. Leaves narrowly ovate, entire, or shghtly dentate ; radical 

 leaves prolonged into a leaf-stalk ; stem-leaves sessile. Flowers 

 white. Siliquas on short stalks, somewhat spreading, scarcely 

 broader than the stalk, long, flattened, with a somewhat prominent 

 midrib and lateral nerves, Seed not winged. 



