Saxifraga. | XLIX, SAXIFRAGACEZ (OLIVER). 383 
= large genus, chiefly characteristic of alpine or arctic regions in the Northern hemi- 
sphere. 
The following appears peculiar to the Abyssinian highlands. 
1. S. hederzefolia, Hochst. ; Rich. Fl. Abyss. i. 817. A low diffuse 
or decumbent herb, branched from the base, glabrous or with few scat- 
tered hairs. Leaves radical and cauline, the former on long flaccid 
petioles, reniform with about 5 (8-7) shallow broadly rounded lobes, 
the median broadest, upper cauline leaves palmatifid or 3-fid with 
shorter petioles. Flowers solitary, “‘ yellow,” pedunculate, leaf-opposed. 
Calyx deeply 5-fid, lobes ovate, obtuse, glandular. Petals obovate 
or obovate-oblong, obtuse, 3-pliveined, subsessile, 2-3. times longer 
than calyx. Ovary about 4—} inferior; styles short, divergent in fruit. 
Nile Land. Abyssinia, at a great elevation, Schimper! Petit! 
Occasionally floating in rivulets, (Fich.). 
Allied to Saxifraga hederacea, Jacq. 
2. VAHLIA, Thunb.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. i. 637. 
Calyx-tube campanulate or hemispherical, adherent throughout to 
the ovary; limb 5-partite, lobes valvate. Petals epigynous, not or 
scarcely exceeding the calyx. Stamens 5, epigynous. Ovary inferior, — 
l1-celled with 2 pendulous multiovulate placentas; styles 2, stigma 
capitellate. Capsule many-seeded, dehiscing at the apex.—Herbs, 
usually pubescent or glandular, erect or diffuse, annual or biennial. 
Leaves opposite, entire. Flowers axillary, usually geminate, subsessile 
or pedunculate. 
A small genus of Africa and the warmer parts of Asia. 
Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate. Flowers sessile . . . . 1. V. viscosa. 
Leaves linear or nearly so. 
Flowers pedunculate. Calyx-lobes shorter than or not ex- ue 
cocding tube: <a a ee oldenlandioides. 
Flowers sessile or pedunculate. Calyx-lobes exceeding tube 3. V. capensis. 
1. V. viscosa, Roxb. ; Hook. f. et Thom. in Journ, Linn. Soe. ti. 74. 
Annual diffuse or erect branching glandular-pilose or pubescent herb, 
4-1 ft. or more in height. Leaves ovate, acute or obtuse, sessile or all 
or the lower only ovate-lanceolate or oval narrowed to the base, 4 to 
over 1 in. long in luxuriant specimens. Flowers sessile or subsessile, 
geminate or solitary in nearly all or at least in the upper axils. Calyx- 
teeth ovate, acute, equalling the campanulate tube. Petals nearly 
equalling calyx-lobes, ovate-rotundate, slightly narrowed to broad base 
or obovate-oblong, frequently apiculate. Filaments filiform, with a 
very minute hairy scale at base. Styles equalling calyx-lobes.—V. 
Weldenii, Reichb. Icon. Bot. Exot. 91; DC. Prod. iv. 53; V. sessili- 
Jtora, DC. Prod. iv. 54, fide Hook. f. et Thom. l.c.  Bistella geminjfiora, 
Delile, Voy. & Méroé, 97, t. ii. fig. 2. 
Upper Guinea. Senegambia, Leprieur and Perrottet, Roger! (A narrow-leaved 
variety, regarded as V. ramosissima, A. DC. by M. Gay.) 
North Central. Kouka, Z. Vogel! 
