610 SAXIFRAGA. [CLASS x. order li. 



tender herb to spring forth ;" and who, after he had created grasses, 

 herbs, and trees, " saw that it was good." So that the Botanist, in his 

 researches on the mountain top, the hill, the valley or the plain, the 

 banks of rivers or the margins of the rippling streams, will find all the 

 objects of his research, from the humblest weed to the majestic tree, 

 the splendid flower, or grateful fruit, proclaiming the majesty and 

 might of Him who said, " Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 

 yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose 

 seed is in itself upon the earth ; and it was so." 



12. aS'. tridactyli'tes, Linn. (Fig. 691.) Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Stem 

 solitary, erect, simple, or much branched ; viscid with glandular hairs, 

 leafy; peduncles single flowered; root leaves on broad footstalks, 

 simple, or from three to five-cleft, those of the stem sessile, simple, or 

 cleft; calyx superior, of five short obtuse lobes; capsule sub-truncated, 

 ovate. 



English Botany, t. 501.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 271.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 198. — Lindley, Synopsis, p. 68. 



Root small, tapering, with branched fibres. Stem erect, simple, or 

 mostly in a paniculated manner, leafy, red, rarely green, and more or 

 less clothed with short glandular hairs, and viscid, especially towards 

 the top, from one to four or five inches high, but very variable in its 

 luxuriance. Leaves fleshy, alternate, simple, linear, or cleft into three 

 or five lobes in a palmated manner, the upper ones sessile, the lower 

 with flat footstalks, of variable lengths, clothed more or less thickly 

 with short glandular hairs. Floicers on simple slender erect pedicles, 

 small, pure white. Calyx nearly superior, of five short erect ovate 

 acute segments, hairy and viscid. Petals obovate, small, rather longer 

 than the calyx. Stamens on slender s\m'^\e filaments^ shorter than the 

 corolla. Anthers round, yellow, of two cells. Styles short. Stigmas 

 small, downy. Capsule roundish, ovate, obtuse, nearly truncated at 

 the top, two celled, many seeded. 



Habitat. — Walls, rocks, and dry places; common. 



Annual ; flowering in May and June. 



Sect. 7. Dactyloides, Tausch. Hort. Canal, fasc. 1. De Cand. 



prod. 4. p. 23. Stem tvith numerous persistent leaves at the base. 



Leaves alternate, plane, entire, or variously lobed, (often on the 



same plant), ciliated ivith jointed hairs. Scape annual, leafy ^ or 



leafless. Calyx about half superior, erect, or spreading. 



13. S. hypnoi'des, Linn. (Fig. 692.) Mossy Saxifrage. Stem at the 



top crowded with from three to five-cleft leaves, the lateral spreading; 



branches with simple linear or three- cleft leaves, all bristle pointed, 



and more or less fringed with hairs ; calyx with ovate lanceolate 



pointed segments ; petals obovate or oblong, much longer than the 



calyx, with three or palmated veins. 



a. gemmifera, Ser. Leaves of the trailing shoots undivided, rarely 

 lobed, sometimes with axillary buds. 



