SOME SCARCE BRITISH ALPINES 
331 
of Europe — we should have many fas- 
cinating Httle plants whose charms are 
apt to be overshadowed by newcomers 
from the uttermost " Back of Beyond." 
This is not to say that our mountain 
plants are peculiar to England, but, as 
natives,theyhave claimswhich have been 
obscured by those of highly-coloured 
yet often intractable aliens. 
it is starred with innumerable clear 
white flowers on their airy little stems. 
It is a plant of the simplest culture and 
the happiest effect, responding grate- 
fully to one's appreciation without 
growing coarse or leafy. In a wild 
state, found near old lead-workings, it 
shows remarkable luxuriance. 
A. 
gothica 
LlLIUM Myriophyllum. 
Flora" from a plant at Cooinlu 
Engraved fi 
Areolar ia verna is a delightful tufted 
plant of the upper mountain-limestone 
(at least in the Craven Highlands), 
which has not been valued as it deserves. 
At all times of the year it gives pleasure, 
no less in winter when its comfortable 
little cushions gleam like a patch of 
emerald fur, than in early summer when 
is one of the 
rarest of British 
alpines, con- 
fined to some 
half-dozen spots 
high on the great 
limestone pla- 
teau that sup- 
ports the mass of 
Ingleborough. 
Here it still lin- 
gers, asurvival of 
the glacial per- 
iod — assuming, 
that is, the fal- 
sity of certain 
suspicions as to 
its introduction 
with ballast from 
the far north. 
It is a small 
yet striking 
plant, minute, 
prostrate, and 
of straggling 
growth, with little ovate leaves of adeep 
glossy green. The flowers are large for 
the size of the plant — larger than those 
of A. vema — of fine, almost waxy tex- 
ture, and a curiously intense snowy- 
whiteness. It is never found in other 
than poor rough ground, among chips 
and debris of the mountain-limestone. 
