SAXIFRAGE FAMILY 349 



Family 59. SAXIFRAGACEAE.* 



Saxifrage Family. 



Annual or perennial caulescent or acaulescent herbs with leaves simple or less 

 often compound, mostly alternate and exstipulate, and commonly all basal. Flowers 

 perigynous, mostly perfect, rarely solitary. Hypanthium usually well developed, 5- 

 (or rarely 4-) lobed, flattish to cylindric, more or less adnate to the base of the 

 ovary. Petals distinct, usually as many as the calyx-lobes and alternating with them, 

 rarely absent. Stamens usually as many, or less often twice as many, as the calyx- 

 lobes (3, more rarely 2, in Tolmiea). Pistil mostly of 2 carpels (3 in Lithophragma) , 

 almost wholly or partially united, or rarely distinct, the placentae parietal (or almost 

 basal) or axile. Ovary 1- or 2-celled, quite superior to wholly inferior. Fruit a 

 capsule or more rarely consisting of separate follicles. Seeds with copious fleshy 

 endosperm. 



About 35 genera and 450 species, of wide geographical distribution, mainly restricted to the temperate zones. 



Placentae axile. 

 Stamens 5. 



Ovary free from the hypanthium; petals lance-subulate, more or less purple. 1. Bolandra. 

 Ovary partially adnate to the hypanthium. 



Plants with short bulblet-bearing rhizomes; flower-stalk axial. 



Ovary half-inferior; blade of the basal leaves ternately divided; stamens borne on the outer 

 edge of a thickened disc. 2. Hcmieva. 



Ovary two-thirds inferior or more; blade of the basal leaves merely crenate; disc obsolete. 



3. Suksdorfia. 

 Plants with horizontal rhizomes; flower-stalk a lateral shoot. 



Petals withering-persistent; seeds winged. 4. Sullivantia. 



Petals usually soon deciduous; seeds wingless. 5. Boykinia. 



Stamens 10; ovary partially adnate to the hypanthium or free. 



Flowers on essentialy naked scapes, the basal leaves appearing after the flowering stage (except in 

 Jepsonia malvae folia). 

 Hypanthium well developed, deeply campanulate, longer than or as long as the sepals; leaves 



reniform or rounded, not peltate, 2.5-8 cm. broad. 6. Jepsonia. 



Hypanthium only slightly developed, flattish, shorter than the sepals; leaves orbicular-peltate, 

 1-4 dm. broad. 7. Peltiphyllum. 



Flowers appearing with or after the leaves; ovary partially adnate to the hypanthium to free except at 

 the very base. 

 Carpels practically distinct, united only at the very base; leaves leathery. 8. Leptarrhena. 

 Carpels united for at least a fifth of their lengths; leaves not leathery. 9. Saxifraga. 



Placentae parietal or sometimes nearly basal. 



Flowers solitary or clustered in the axils of the upper leaves; calyx-lobes normally 4; petals absent; stamens 

 4 or g 10. Chrysosplenium. 



Flowers in more or less elongated racemes or panicles; calyx -lobes 5; petals normally present. 



Styles normally 3; flower-stalk axial from a slender bulbiferous rhizome. 11. Lithophragma. 



Styles normally 2; flower-stalk a lateral shoot from a relatively stout scaly rhizome. 



Carpels soon very unequally 2-valved to the very base; petals (in ours) entire, filiform or subulate. 



12. Tiarella. 



Carpels essentially equal. 

 Inflorescence a raceme. 



Petals filiform, entire; hypanthium irregular. 



Hypanthium cylindric-funnelform, greenish veined and tinged with purple, split 

 almost to the base on the lower side; stamens 3 or, more rarely, 2. 



13. Tolmiea. 



Hypanthium shallowly campanulate, creamy white, only slightly irregular (sepals 

 irregularly grouped); stamens 5. 14. Bensonia. 



Petals linear or broader, entire or variously lobed to dissected; hypanthium regular. 

 Petals pinnately cleft or pinnatifid. 



Hypanthium deeply campanulate or urceolate, deeper than the length of the 

 calyx-lobes; capsule tapering into the beaks; stamens 10. 



15. Tellima. 



Hypanthium saucer-shaped or open-campanulate, shallower than the length of 

 the calyx-lobes; capsule abruptly beaked or beakless; stamens 5. 

 Ovary more than half-superior, not flattened above; stigmas entire; 



youngest flowers at the base of the inflorescence. 16. Mitellastra. 

 Ovary almost wholly inferior, the top flattened and disc-like; stigmas sub- 

 sessile, 2-lobed at the apex; youngest flowers at the tip of the inflorescence. 



17. Pectiantia. 



Petals digitately 3-lobed, -cleft, or -parted above, or entire; stamens 5. 



Flowering branches leafless. 18. Ozomelis. 



Flowering branches leafy. 19. Elmera. 



Inflorescence paniculate, the panicle often spiciform; stamens 5. 20. Heuchera. 



1. BOLANDRA A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. 7:341. 1868. 

 Perennial glabrous or glandular-puberulent herbs with oalmately veined thin leaves 



* Text, except for the genus Heuchera, contributed by Rimo Bacigalupi. 



