D R Y A S o&opetala.
Mountain Avens.
I COS A N D R U Polygynla.
G en. Ch a r. Cal. in 5 to 8 equal fegments. Petals
5 to 8. Seeds with long feathery awns.
Spec. Ch a r. Petals eight. Leaves Ample, ferrated.
S y n . Dryas odlopetala. Linn. Sp. PI. 717. Hudf. 226.
With. 4 7 8. Lightf. 2 7 4. FI. Dan. /. 3 1 . Tour
on the Cont. v. 3 . 1 3 7.
Caryophyllata Alpina, Chamasdryos folio. Rail
Syn. 2 5 3.
n p
-L H IS moft elegant inhabitant of the Alps is found about
the tops of feveral of the higheft hills in Britain, and even in
the north-weft part of Yorkfhire (a country rich in wild fce-
nery and botanical rarities), from whence the Rev. Mr. Wood,
F. L. S. favoured us with this fpecimen. We have cultivated
the Dryas with fuccefs under a north wall on a gravelly foil mixed
with loam.
It is perennial and fhrubby, though of a very humble fize,
flowering from the middle of June till the latter part of Auguft,
and the beautiful leaves are ever-green. The woody proftrate
Items, tangled together, form a thick matted tuft to the extent
of feveral feet; they are fmooth, clothed with the remains of
withered leaf-ftalks. Leaves crowded, on longifh woolly foot-
ftalks, to whofe lower part is attached a pair of narrow Iharp
ftipulse, like thofe in the neighbouring genera of Rofa and
Rubus. The leaf itfelf is Ample, from half an inch to an inch
long, ovate, blunt, with deep> fomewhat revolute, ferratures;
dark ftiining green above ; very white and cottony, with brown-
ifh projecting veins beneath. Stalks folitary, Ample, riflng
more than twice as high as the leaves, round, Angle- flowered,
downy, and in the upper part the down is intermixed with
reddifh hooked glandular briftles, as is alfo the cafe with the
outflde of the calyx. Flower large, ereCt, bearing fome re-
femblance at flrft Aght to the bloflom of a Carolina ftrawberry,
but more handfome on account of its eight uniform petals, and
the Alvery tuft of ftyles furrounded by numerous yellow an-
therae. The ftyles, after flowering, are lengthened out into
feathery awns, each crowning an obovate dry downy feed,
Handing on the dilk of the calyx.