SAXIFRAGACE^. I4I 



Cotoncastcr buxifolia Wall.; F.B.I, iii 387, XXV il. 

 A small shrub often only I J^ feet high with thick woody 

 branches. Leaves /i to J^ inch, elliptic entire, acute at 

 both ends, one-nerved. Flowers % inch in small clusters. 

 Fruit globular, scarlet. 



Nilgiris : in Ootacamund ? wild ; abundant in the Kaity 

 valley and near the old Boer camp. Pulneys : Poombari but not 

 seen at high levels. 



Gen. Dist. Doubtfully on the Himalayas. 



SAXIFRAGACE/E. 



A large family not easy of definition but typically with 

 perfectly regular flowers of five sepals, five petals, five or 

 ten stamens, and semi-inferior ovary of two or three cells. 



Well-known wild or garden plants are Saxifrage, Ger. Stein 

 brech, London-Pride, Grass of Parnassus, Hydrangea, Deutzia, 

 Philadelphus ("Syringa") and Currant. Species 5 or 600 all 

 over the world. 



PARNASSIA. F.B.I. VI. 



Grass of Parnassus. 

 Marsh plants with perennial rootstock. Leaves all 

 radical, heart-shaped, entire, glabrous, long-stalked. 

 Flowers solitary on slender much longer stalks with a 

 bract about half way up ; white or very pale yellow. 

 Sepals, petals, stamens and staminodes five, in alter- 

 nating whorls. Ovary one-celled, with three or four 

 nearly sessile stigmas, and, inside, alternating with the 

 stigmas, as many parietal placentas to which are attached 

 the numerous horizontal ovules. Seeds with thick 

 embryo and thin endosperm. Capsule semi-superior, 

 small, globose, one-celled, opening by three or four 

 valves. 



Species about 12, over the northern hemisphere extending 

 south to these hills. 



