ALSINE 
35 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 33. (a) Flowering shoot, (b) Leaves (enlarged). 
(< d ) Sepals (enlarged), (e) Flower (enlarged). (/) Ovaries (enlarged) in 
different stages of development, (g, h ) Ripening capsules (enlarged). 
(t) Burst capsule (enlarged). Perthshire (E. S. M. and C. E. M.). 
Exsiccata : — Fries, v, 38, as Al. hirta ; Schultz ( H . N., nov. ser.), xxii, 
2138, as Al. hirta. 
Perennial herb, tufted, more or less glandular. Leaves linear, 
blunt, crowded, very short (about 4 mm. long). Flowering branches 
about 3 — 4 cm. high, with short internodes. Inflorescence 1 -flowered. 
Pedicels about 5 mm. long. Flowers about 6 mm. in diameter ; 
July and early August. Sepals rather narrowly ovate, with a scarious 
border. Petals either absent or about as long as the sepals, elliptical 
to obovate. Stamens 8 — 10. Stigmas 3 — 4, almost as long as 
the ovary. Ovary ovate. Capsule ovate, about as long as the 
calyx. 
This Arctic species was first found in this country by G. Don and J. Mackay 
in 1793 on Ben Lawers in Perthshire; and specimens gathered by Mackay on Ben 
Lawers in 1796 exist in herb. Smith. 
Very rare ; cliffs on mountains where the mineral-content is 
high; from about 880 to 1160 m. ; Perthshire, Sutherlandshire, 
Zetland. 
Iceland, Arctic Europe ; northern Asia ; North America ; 
Greenland. Not known in central Europe. 
(c) Flower-bud (enlarged). 
Map 13. 
Distribution of Alsine rubella 
in Scotland 
4. ALSINE TENUIFOLIA. Plate 34 
A. tenuifolia J. Bauhin Hist, iii, 364 (1651); Ray Cat. Cantab. 9 (1660); Syn. ed. 3, 350 (1724). 
Alsine tenuifolia Crantz Inst, ii, 407 (1766); Wahlenberg Veg. Helv. 86 (1813); Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 
1 12 (1864); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 276 (1896); Arenaria tenuifolia L. Sp. PI. 424 (1753)!; Smith Eng. 
Bot. no. 219 (1794); FI. Brit. 481 (1800)!; Minuartia tenuifolia Hiern in fourn. Bot. xxxvii, 321 (1899) non Nees 
in lift, ex Martins Hort. Erlang. 44(1814); M. leptophylla H. and J. Groves in Babington’s Man. ed. 9, 61 (1904). 
leones: — Smith Eng. Bot. t. 219, as Arenaria tenuifolia. 
Camb. Brit. FI. iii. Plate 34.. (a) Whole plant in fruit. Suffolk (C. E. M.). (b) Branches. ( c ) Flowers, 
from above and from below (enlarged), (d) Fruit before dehiscence. ( e ) Fruit after dehiscence (one enlarged). 
Hort. (E. W. H.) 
Exsiccata: — Dickson, x, 11, as Arenaria tenuifolia ; Don, 135, as Ar. tenuifolia ; v. Heurck, iii, 1 17 ; Huter, 
32, 152; Welwitsch {FI. Lusit.), 208, as Ar. tenuifolia ; Wirtgen, ix, 449; Fries, i, 41, as Al. viscosa ; Schultz 
{H. N.), 440, as Al. viscosa; (FI. Gall, et Germ.), 1231, as Al. viscosa; Wirtgen, ix, 450, as Al. viscosa. 
Annual. Shoot up to 2 dm. high, glabrous or 
more or less glandular. Branches slender, with 
elongate internodes. Leaves linear-subulate, about 
1 -5 cm. long, with 3 — 5 veins at the base. In- 
florescence a typical dichasium, many flowered. 
Pedicels of the terminal flower ro — 1*5 cm. long. 
Flowers about 4 mm. in diameter; July and August. 
Sepals lanceolate-acuminate, joined at the base, each 
with 3 veins. Petals about half to nearly two-thirds as 
long as the sepals, oboval. Stamens 3 — 10. Stigmas 
3 — 4. Capsule narrowly ovate, about ri — i‘3 times 
as long as the calyx, with the carpels separating only 
at the top after dehiscence. Seeds punctulate. 
The following varieties appear to be very slight. 
(a) Al. tenuifolia var. vaillantiana DC. Prodr. i, 406 
(1824); Rouy et Foucaud FI. France iii, 276 (1896); Al. 
tenuifolia var. genuina Willkomm Icon, et Descr. i, 106 
(1852); Syme Eng. Bot. ii, 112 (1864). 
f cones : — Willkomm op. cit. t. 69, fig. A, as Al. tenuifolia var. genuina; Reichenbach Icon, v, t. 204, fig. 4916, 
as Sabulina tenuifolia. 
Map 14. Alsine tenuifolia occurs in the counties which are 
shaded, though it is perhaps only adventitious in some of 
them 
5—2 
