172 Dr. W. Seller on some Plants obtained 



Of the S. oppositifolia I have nothing to observe. The speci- 

 mens of S. tricuspidata are several and very well marked. Of the 

 S. cernua the specimens are pretty numerous^ while very few, as 

 is usual, have flowers. One has a rather large flower with two 

 imblown flowers near it, so as to form an approach to a simple 

 umbel. In another there is a well-blown flower and an unblown 

 small flower near it. The only specimen besides, which has a 

 flower at all, is one-flowered. Sir Wm. Hooker in the ' British 

 Flora ' remarks on this species, ^' frequently there is no flower, 

 and I have never seen more than one upon a stem." Linnaeus 

 also describes the S. cernua as one-flowered. Wahlenberg how- 

 ever says, " caule subunifloro," and Sir Wm. Hooker in his ' Flora 

 Boreali- Americana^ has in the definition " flore ssepe subunifloro." 

 In these specimens the minute rounded bodies or bulbils which 

 stand instead of flowers are easily extracted from the axils of the 

 uppermost leaves. And in all the specimens the root is clothed 

 with amylaceous scales, giving to it at the first inspection no small 

 resemblance to the root of the S. granulata. In none of the de- 

 scriptions that I have consulted is this singularity of the root 

 referred to except by Mr. Don, who speaks of the " radix squa- 

 mata, squamse e basibus petiolorum foliorum primordialium 

 enata." And moreover he places this species in his third section 

 of the genus Saxifragaf termed Leiogyne, of which he remarks, 

 that " the roots, whether scaly or fibrous, scarcely afibrd any spe- 

 cific character, as they have all a tendency to become scaly." 



Our fourth Saxifrage is the S. rivularis. It is wholly in fruit, 

 and is taller and stouter than usual. Wahlenberg says the S. ri- 

 vularis hardly exceeds an inch in height. Hooker describes it 

 as " pigmaea." Don gives two inches as the height of the stems. 

 Our specimens approach to three inches. There can be no doubt 

 however that these are specimens of the S. rivularis. 



CoMPOSiTiE. — Of the plants before us, one only belongs to 

 the Compositcp. On mentioning at our last meeting that I took 

 this syngenesious plant for a species of Arnica, my opinion met 

 with very little countenance. I have since examined the speci- 

 mens with some care, and I feel satisfied that the plant is an 

 Arnica, and that it is the same as what authors have described as 

 one of the x^rctic forms of the Arnica montana. 



As however this Arctic plant difi'ers so much in aspect from 

 the luxuriant plant of more temperate countries, it may be worth 

 while to give the results of that examination. Our specimens 

 have no root-leaves, and Mr. Sutherland assured me that he saw 

 none when he gathered them. On this however I shall not insist. 

 The scape is five or six inches long, hollow, one-flowered. Be- ' 

 tween one and two inches above the base two opposite leaves or 

 leafy scales arise, in some degree amplexicaul, or even approach- 



