Seedling Saxifrages. 227 



Notes on Seedling Saxifrages grown at Brockhurst 

 from a single scape of Saxifraga Macnabiana. By 

 William Brockbank, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



{Received April i6th, i88g.) 



Saxifraga Macnabiana is considered to be the most 

 showy of all the cultivated saxifrages, having the scape of 5. 

 Cotyledon, but with the petals dotted over with deep carmine 

 spots. It was raised at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edin- 

 burgh, in 1876, when Mr. MacNab was the curator, and was 

 named after him. Mr. Lindsay, the present curator, who 

 was the real raiser of the plant, informs me that nothing 

 whatever was known of its parentage, but that vS. uepalensis 

 produced the seeds. This is merely a garden variety of 

 S. Cotyledon, which occurs in the wild state throughout 

 Europe from the Pyrenees to Lapland. In Lapland it is 

 called the Fjeld frier, and it is the sweetheart's gift to his 

 lady-love in that country, where it produces lovely panicles 

 of white flowers two feet high. Mr. Lindsay when in Nor- 

 way, in 1877, gathered many specimens of 6". Cotyledon dif- 

 fering considerably from the type in flowers and foliage. It 

 will be seen that this susceptibility to variation is charac- 

 teristic of the plant under cultivation. 



When 5. Macnabiana was raised, the only plant near 

 5. Cotyledon was 5. lingnlata, a species of dwarfer growth, 

 the petals spotted with pink, and the foliage edged with 

 encrusted pores. Mr. Lindsay therefore believes that .S". 

 lingnlata was the pollen parent, and this is probably the 

 case, as many of the seedlings are like this species, and the 

 dwarfer habit of the plant may also have been brought 



