n6 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Geranium phceum L. Dusky Geranium. 



Rootstock thick, knotted, oblique or horizontal. Stems 1-2 feet 

 high, erect, simple or branched, covered like the whole plant with 

 woolly hairs. Leaves roundish cordate in outline, palmately 5-7 

 lobed, lower leaves stalked, upper sessile ; lobes 3-cleft, coarsely 

 cut and serrated. Flowers dark purple, in loose racemose cymes ; 

 flower-stalk 2-flowered, pedicel erect or horizontal after flowering. 

 Petals patent during flowering, roundish ovate, shortly apiculate. 

 Carpels with 3 or 4 wrinkles in the upper part ; beak finely downy, 

 not glandular. 



Thickets, ravines, and meadows of the lower Alps up to 5300 feet ; 

 local. May, July. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Eastern, Central, and Western Alps, 

 Jura, Central Europe ; from Scotland to Bulgaria and Thrace. 



In Switzerland rather rare ; but a pale violet variety seems 

 frequent in several places at about 5000 feet, as at the Col de la 

 Forclaz between Chamonix and Martigny. 



Geranium nodosum L. 



Closely allied to G. striatum L., about ij feet high, covered with a 

 fine pubescence. Stems less downy and strongly inflated at the 

 nodes. Leaves 3-5 lobed, lobes ovate-acuminate, serrate. Petals 

 pale violet or pink, obcordate. Peduncles 2-flowered. Sepals ter- 

 minating in a long point, pubescent. Carpels finely downy. 



Woods and by streams in the mountains ; rare. June to August. 



Distribution. — ^Alps, rare in Switzerland (Jura, Valais), Cevennes, 

 Pyrenees, Central France, Corsica, Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Mon- 

 tenegro. Occasionally in England, but probably not native. 



RHAMNACEiE 



A large family, widely spread throughout the globe, but with very 

 few European genera. 



Rhamnus L. Buckthorn 



Shrubs with alternate, entire leaves, and small green flowers 

 on short pedicels, usually clustered in the axils of the leaves. Petals 

 none or very small. Calyx with 4 or 5 short deciduous teeth. 

 Stamens 4 or 5, alternating with the teeth of the calyx, and inserted 

 on a disk. Ovary free, 3 or 4-celled. Style very short. Fruit a 

 small berry (or drupe), enclosing 3 or 4 small nuts. A rather large 

 genus, spread over the northern hemisphere of both Old and New 

 World, and penetrating into the tropics. 



Rhamnus pumila Turra. 



A small under-shrub, with prostrate branches, clinging to the 

 rocks. Leaves entire, finely toothed, with 4-7 somewhat curved 

 lateral parallel veins on each side of the midrib. Flowers in small 



