100 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Flowers red, in close, sessile, or shortly stalked, opposite clusters, 

 forming an oblong panicle or head. Calyx tubular, with lo veins 

 and 5 short teeth. Petals slightly notched. 



Rocks and hilly pastures. May to July. 



Distribution. — Central and Northern Europe to Norway ; Siberia ; 

 Caucasus ; a few places in N. Wales and Scotland. 



Lychnis Flos Jovis Desr. 



Plant covered with whitish, silky tomentum. Stems 10-18 inches 

 high, erect, simple. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, the 

 upper ones narrower. Flowers deep pink, crowded. Petals deeply 

 divided. Calyx coriaceous, with 10 prominent nerves and broadly 

 acute teeth. Capsule oblong-acute, with five teeth, much shorter 

 than the carpophore. 



Sub-alpine pastures and broken ground. June to August. 



Distribution. — Western and Southern Alps, Southern Switzerland, 

 Italy, Tyrol. 



Lychnis Coronaria L. 



A taller plant, covered with dense white sUky tomentum. Leaves 

 oblong-lanceolate, acute. Flower solitary, axillary, and terminal, 

 large and handsome, reddish purple, or rarely white, longly petioled 

 in a loose, dichotomous spray. Calyx with 10 unequal nerves and 

 linear teeth, much shorter than the corolla. Petals entire or slightly 

 crenate. Capsule oblong-acute, without carpophore, 5-toothed. 



Wooded hiUs and rocky, bushy places in the plains and sub-Alps. 

 Reaches a considerable height in Val Toumanche and the Saas 

 Valley. May to July. 



Distribution. — Southern Europe from Portugal to the Caucasus ; 

 probably only in Valais in Switzerland, except where it has escaped 

 from gardens, it being a favourite plant in cottage gardens, as in 

 England. 



SiLENE L. 



Calyx, corolla, and stamens as in Lychnis. Styles 3. Capsules 

 opening at the top in 6 teeth or short valves. A very large genus, of 

 about 250 species, widely spread over Europe, Central and Northern 

 Asia and N. America, with a few species in S. Africa. 



Silene acaulis L. 



Usually stemless or with stems J to i inch high. 



Root woody, branched, with many aerial shoots, covered with the 

 withered leaves, and bearing a rosette of fresh leaves forming dense, 

 cushion-like tufts. Sometimes hemispherical masses a foot across 

 are seen covering rocks or grassy ground in Alpine pastures. Leaves 

 radical, linear, acute or acuminate, entire, shortly ciliated, other- 

 wise glabrous. Flowers dioecious or hermaphrodite, solitary at the 

 extremity of the shoots. Calyx cylindrical, or bell-shaped, with 



