The original drawing, with Smith’s notes annexed, is a proof
of th is; and thus tab. 244 does not represent either plant.
Our present plate is engraved from a drawdng by Mr. J. W.
Salter, which is beautifully accurate; but the engraver has
not quite clearly understood it, and has made the lowest and
outline leaves appear as if peltate, whereas the external smaller
lobes are never quite connected together, although at times
they even overlap: the leaves are really palmate, though they
seem on a first view to be peltate.
It is the peltate appearance of the radical leaves, their
palmate not digitate structure, much larger size, and much
more satiny silkiness, combined with the much-branched inflorescence,
which chiefly distinguish this plant from A. alpina.
We have had the plants growing side by side for many years,
and seen no alteration : Mr. H. C. Watson said, some time
since, that he had raised them both from seed, and that
whether confined to small pots or in the open ground, in stiff
loam or loose mould, they continued constant in the shape,
structure, colour, and lustre of their leaves; except that in
A. alpina the lobes of the leaves became very slightly connected
below. Nevertheless we think it quite possible that
the plants are not distinct species, but only very constant
races.
This plant passes, or did recently pass, for A. alpina in
most botanic gardens, and Dr. Walker-Arnott states that it
has borne the name of A. hybrida in some places. Don’s name
A. argentea would have been admirable, if Lamarck had not
so-called the typical A. alpina. The resuscitation of an extinct
name would therefore here have caused more than ordinary
confusion.
Whenever we can trace the history of plants of A. conjuncta,
they are stated to have been obtained from the late Mr. George
Don of Forfar, and the specimen from him in the late Mr.
Borrer’s Herbarium was gathered at Clova. In 1853 Mr. A.
O. Black found a very large patch of it, 8-10 feet square, on
the Craig Rennet side of Glen Dole, Clova. In 1832 Dr. N.
Tyache gathered it near the head of Glen Sannox, Goat
Fell, Arran. It flowers in July and August on the mountains;
in June in gardens.—C. C. B.