363 



While collecting in the caiion below the Falls of the Yadkin 

 river in North Carolina last April, I found unusually well devel- 

 oped plants of Saxifraga Virginiensis ranging from four to five deci- 

 meters in height, but more remarkable was the great quantity of 

 small bulblets produced by the subterranean portions of the plants, 

 and also the numerous offsets. The same features were noticed 

 in specimens gathered on Dunn's mountain in the same state. 



Saxifraga Californica Greene, Pittonia, i : 286. 1889. 

 In the light of recent discoveries, Prof. Greene has not pointed 

 out any reliable distinguishing characters in discussing the rela- 

 tions between Saxifraga Californica and S. J^iigitiiensis. The two 

 species are closely related in habit, and the one is about as varia- 

 ble as the other. Prof. Greene lays much stress on the occurrence 

 of small bulblets in Saxifraga Californica, but we now know that 

 vS. Virginiensis also possesses this character. After examining many 

 specimens for the purpose of finding some diagnostic characters in 

 the two closely related plants, I find that the flower furnishes the 

 best. Besides the reflexed or erect calyx-segments, these organs in 

 Saxifraga Californica are ovate or oblong-ovate and obtuse, while 

 those of ^. Virginiensis are triangular, triangular-ovate, or rarely 

 nearly lanceolate, and acute or acutish. The petals furnish another 

 character ; those of the western plant are broadly oval or suborbi- 

 cular, some or all notched at the apex, while their lateral nerves 

 vanish in the blade ; in the eastern plant they are narrowly elliptic 

 or elliptic-spatulate, not notched at the apex, and the lateral nerves 

 converge to the mid-nerve at the apex. 



Saxifraga fragosa Suksdorf n. sp. 



Perennial by an ascending or horizontal rootstock, scapose 

 slender, pale-green, rough glandular-pilose with rigid hairs. 

 Leaves basal, leathery, the blades ovate or oblong-ovate, 1.5-4 cm. 

 long, usually exceeding the petioles, glabrate, obtuse, entire or 

 ■'undulately toothed, abruptly narrowed or truncate at the base, de- 

 current on the winged petiole, which is slightly dilated at the 

 base ; scapes erect or assurgent, 2-3 dm. tall, solitary, paniculately 

 or somewhat corymbosely branched at the top, the branches as- 

 cending or nearly erect, subtended by lanceolate or spatulate 

 bracts; flowers white, 5-6 mm. broad, in many-flowered cy mules; 

 calyx broadly campanulate, the tube 2.5 mm. broad, adnate to the 



