Our drawing of this pretty and very rare Alpine plant
was made last Summer at the Apothecaries Company’s Garden,
at Chelsea, where it continued to flower a great part of
the Summer and ripened seeds, so that we hope there will
be no danger of its being again lost, which we believe it
frequently has; as the plant generally cultivated as P . alpinum,
is, P. pyrenaicum of Decandolle, a species with
a yellow flower, and which is also very apt to die off as well
as the present; but as it is of stronger growth and seeds
abundantly, it is more easily preserved.
The present species has now flowered two years following
with Mr. Anderson, but much stronger last Summer than
the former one; as the plant is so liable to die off"in Winter,
the best way to preserve it is to grow it in rock-work, and to
place a little pot over it in very severe dry frost, or when there
is a superabundance of rain; we have succeeded in preserving
many tender things by that means, as it partly answers
the purpose of the snow that covers them through the greater
part of the Winter in their native country; if kept in
pots in frames through the Winter they must be exposed
to the open air at all times, except in very wet weather, or
severe frost, or they will be almost certain to damp oflf.
Seeds, sown early in Spring, will flower the same Summer.
1. Portion o f the Stamens to show their diiference in length. 2. Capsule terminated
by the four spreading Stigmas that are fringed, and between each is a
crescent-shaped gland