Stem shrubby, procumbent, branching in all directions
: branches thickly clothed with white spreading
unequal hairs. Leaves green on both sides, oblong-
elliptic, with a strong nerve underneath, and furrowed
above, more or less hairy on both sides: lower ones
petiolate; upper ones sessile, or nearly so, shorter and
rounder. Petioles flat, fringed. Stipules none. Flowers
terminal, in short secund racemes, of a bright yellow.
JBractes at the base of the pedicles, oblong, or lanceolate,
bluntish, densely hairy. Pedicles slender, thickly
clothed with white unequal hairs ; before flowering, recurved,
when in flower, erect, after flowering, reflexed.
Calyx of 5 unequal sepals, very hairy: 2 outer ones
very small, lanceolate, scarcely more than half the
length of the others; inner ones oblongly lanceolate,
concave, bluntish. Petals 5, about double the length
of the calyx; flat, imbricate nearly all their length,
round or slightly emarginate, scarcely crenulate.
Stamens 30 to 40, unequal in length, spreading.
Germen hairy. Style short, twisted at the base.
Stigma capitate, 3-lobed, bristly.
An elegant little species, well adapted for the ornamenting
of rock-work, or for growing at the front of
flower borders, where its lively blossoms, which continue
in succession for a considerable time, make a
handsome appearance. It is a native of various parts
of Europe, growing in rocky mountainous situations;
we have compared our plant with a fine specimen in
Mr. Lambert’s Herbarium, with which it agrees so
exact, that the drawing might be supposed to have
been made from the very specimen. It succeeds well
in small pots, planted in a mixture of light sandy loam
and peat; and cuttings strike root readily, taken off in
the young wood as soon as ripened, and planted
under hand-glasses, where they will soon strike root;
it may also be raised from seeds, which sometimes
ripen.
Our drawing was taken from a plant at the Nursery
of Mr. Colvill, last summer.