284 SUB-ALPINE PLANTS 



Veratrum L. 



Rootstock creeping. Stems tall, robust, leafy. Leaves oval, 

 with very strong nerves. Flowers in branched panicles. Capsule 

 of 3 carpels united, many-seeded. Acrid and poisonous herbs. 



Veratrum album L. 



Stem simple, 2-3 feet high, erect, robust, leafy, covered below 

 with pubescent leaf-sheaths, thickened to a bulb at the base, scaly 

 or somewhat floccose like the flower-stalks, with large sessile leaves 

 regularly creased at the base, and bearing a paniculate inflorescence. 

 Leaves entire, creased, veined, sealed on long sheaths, glabrous 

 above, downy beneath, the lower ones oval, obtuse, the upper- 

 most lanceolate, acute. Flowers numerous, greenish white, in large 

 panicles. Perianth-segments longer than the flower-stalks. 



Abundant in grassy Alpine and sub-alpine pastures. July to 

 September ; up to 8200 feet. 



Distribution. — Carpathians, Riesengebirge ; Eastern, Central, 

 and Western Alps ; Jura, Vosges, Cevennes, Pyrenees, Caucasus, 

 Siberia, Japan. 



The leaves resemble those of Gentiana lutea, and both plants are 

 avoided by the cattle and the mowers. 



Veratrum nigrum L. 



Flowers very dark red or purplish, smaller than the last. Perianth- 

 segments as long as the pedicels. 



Alpine and sub-alpine meadows and pastures ; rare. July, 

 August. 



Distribution. — Tessin (Monte Generoso), Eastern Alps, Maritime 

 Alps, Eastern Europe, Western and Northern Asia. 



COLCHICUM L. 



Flowers usually solitary, springing from a fleshy corm. Leaves 

 radical, appearing after the flowers. Flowers with long tube like 

 those of Crocus. Stamens 6. Ovary underground, but within the 

 lengthened tube of the perianth. Styles 3, very long and thread- 

 like. Capsule 3-valved. 



Colchicum autumnale L. Autumn Crocus. 



No leaves at time of flowering, but appearing later. Corm ending 

 in a sheath of brown scales enclosing the base of the flowers, whose 

 tube rises 3-5 inches above the ground, with 6 oblong segments, 

 pinkish lilac in colour, rarely white. In spring the leaves attain 

 a length of 8 or 10 inches, by an inch or more in breadth. The large 

 capsule is then raised above the ground by the lengthening of the 

 peduncle, and the leaves wither away. 



Moist meadows and pastures in hilly districts. August, September. 



