324 



FIELD AND WOODLAND PLANTS 



stock, producing an abundance of fleshy leaves early in the year, 

 and flowering stems, from six to eighteen inches high, from June 

 to August. The lower leaves are round, wavy, smooth, very 

 succulent and brittle, and depressed in the centre where the long 

 fleshy stalks are attached. Those of the st«m have shorter stalks 

 which are more and more removed from the centre from below 



upwards. The 

 stem is thick and 

 succulent, and 

 bears a long 

 raceme of pen- 

 dulous yellow- 

 green flowers on 

 short stalks. 

 Each flower has 

 a very small 

 calyx of five 

 sepals ; a cylin- 

 drical corolla, 

 about a quarter 

 of an inch long, 

 with five short 

 teeth; ten sta- 

 mens, attached 

 to the tube of 

 the corolla ; and 

 a superior ovary. 

 Several of the 

 Saxifrages grow 

 in rocky and 

 stony places, and 

 four or five species are sufficiently common to demand a notice 

 here. The flowers of this group have a calyx of five sepals that is 

 either quite free or more or less adlierent to the ovary ; a corolla 

 of five petals ; ten stamens, attached ^\ith the petals at the base 

 of the calyx ; and a two-celled ovary, with two distinct styles, 

 containing several seeds. 



Our first species is the London Pride, None-so-Pretty, or St. 

 Patrick's Cabbage {Saxifraga umhrosa), a native of Irish mountains 

 which has been introduced into Britain as a garden flower, and 

 has now become established as a wild flower in many parts. Its 



The Mossy Saxifrage. 



