Volume 7 — PLATE CCCCLXXXII.

DIANTHUS ALPINUS.

Alpine Pink.

CLASS VI. ORDER II.

DECANDRIA DIGYNIA. Ten Chives. Two Pointals.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx. Perianthium cylindricum, tubulosum, striatum, persistens: os 5-dentatum, basi squamulis quatuor cinctum, quarum interdum duæ oppositæ, inferiores.

Corolla. Petala 5. Ungues longitudine calycis, angusti, receptaculo inserti: limbus extus planus, laminis late obtusis, crenatis.

Stamina. Filamenta decem, subulata, longitudine calycis: antheræ ovales, oblongæ, compressæ, incumbentes.

Pistillum. Germen ovale. Styli duo, subulati, staminibus longiores. Stigmata recurvata, acuminata.

Pericarpium. Capsula cylindrica, recta, unilocularis, quadrilateralis, apice dehiscens.

Semina plurima, compressa, subrotunda, a receptaculo liberata.

Empalement cylindrical, tubular, lined, remaining: the mouth is 5-toothed, surrounded by four squamæ at the base, or sometimes two opposite ones beneath.

Blossom 5 petals: the claws the length of the calyx, narrow, and inserted into the receptacle: border flat without, broadly obtuse, and notched.

Chives. Ten threads, awl-shaped, the length of the calyx: tips oval, oblong, compressed, and incumbent.

Pointal. Seed-bud oval. Shafts two, awl-shaped, and longer than the chives. Summit recurved, and pointed.

Seed-vessel. Capsule cylindrical, straight, one loculament, four-sided, and splitting at the end.

Seeds many, compressed, nearly round, and freed from the receptacle.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Dianthus alpinus. Frutex pygmæus, elegans, foliis oppositis, alternis, linearibus, curvatis, brevibus: floribus terminalibus, rubris, in medio circulo albo.

Alpine pink. An elegant dwarf shrub, with opposite alternate leaves, linear, curved, and short. Flowers terminal and red, with a small circle of white in the centre.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

The Dianthus alpinus is a very scarce plant, little known, and rarely to be met with in any collection, although its beauty renders it deserving a place in every one, and its size would never exclude it from any. Our figure represents the entire plant, from the collection of Isaac Swainson, esq. who raised it from seed which he received from Germany. The only coloured representation of it extant is in the Flora Austriaca of Jacquin, from a native specimen, and of no greater magnitude than our figure represents—a diminutive stature, particularly characteristic of the true Alpine pink.