602 SAXIFRAGA. I^CLASS x. order ii. 



with a short claw, and marked with two yellow spots near the base ; 

 capsule membranous, veiny. 



English Botany, t. 167.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 264. — Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 196. — Bohertsonia Stellaris^ Haivorth. — 

 Lindley, Synopsis, p. 70. 



Root of numerous long slender branched fibres. Stem short, rarely 

 more than an inch long, frequently branched, with a rosaceous tuft of 

 leaves, crowded or alternate, and each branch mostly terminated in a 

 scape. Leaves oblong, wedge shaped, sessile, or tapered into a slender 

 footstalk, somewhat fleshy, but flexuous, angularly toothed to about 

 the middle, or quite entire, as in variety /S., of a yellowish green colour, 

 paler beneath, sometimes purple, smooth, or scattered over with hairs, 

 and with a rather stout mid-rib. Scape from one to six inches high, 

 round, somewhat striated, nearly smooth, or clothed with hairs, and 

 glutinous, terminating in a corymbose panicle, of a few flowers, the 

 peduncles ascending, slender, hairy, each having at its base a linear 

 bractea ; sometimes there are three united at the base. Flowers spread- 

 ing, star-like, the calyx in five ovate acute three ribbed segments, 

 spreading when in flower, reflexed in fruit, inferior, free, smooth, 

 rarely hairy. Petals five, white, each with two yellow spots near the 

 base, ovate-lanceolate, three ribbed, contracted at the base into a short 

 claw, longer than the calyx. Stamens with awl-shaped filaments^ 

 shorter than the corolla. Anthers ovate, two celled. Styles very 

 short, spreading, with small stigmas. Capsule oblong, ovate, sub- 

 membranous, smooth and veiny. Seeds numerous, small, ovate, brown, 

 rough, with longitudinal rows of small tubercles. 



Habitat. — Wet rocks and damp places in the mountainous districts 

 of the North of England, and Ireland. ^. rock on Ben Nevis. — 

 Mrs. S. Murray. 



Perennial; flowering from June to August. 



This is an extremely variable plant in its size and appearance. It 

 is sometimes found in cold elevated places, with the flowers almost 

 sessile amongst the leaves ; frequently the stem has only a solitary 

 scape, and almost as ofteu it is much branched, and with numerous 

 scapes ; the flowers are mostly in a branched corymbose panicle, but 

 sometimes they are nearly sessile, in a capitate form; the leaves are 

 either smooth or hairy, as well as the scapes, and the petals are marked 

 with small or larger spots. 



Sect. 4. Hydatica. Tausch. Hort. Canal, fasc. 1. De Cand. 

 Prod. p. 4. p. 41. Stem leafy at the base. Leaves persistent^ 

 leathery f wedge-shaped, or sub-orbicular. Scape annual, pani- 

 culated, leafless. Calyx refiexed, free. Petals obovate, with 

 palmate veins. 

 6. S. Ge'um, Linn. (Fig. 683.) Kidney -shaped Saxifrage. Leaves 

 roundish, kidney-shaped, acutely crenated, more or less hairy; foot- 



