NAT. ORDER. — SAXIFRAGES. 



183 



ole.s, somewhat reniform at the base; lobes obtuse; cauline leaves 

 all petiolate ; upper cauline leaves undivided, acute at both ends ; 

 peduncles and calyxes clothed with viscid down ; flowers white, 

 much larger than those in many of the other species ; petals tripple 

 nerved ; nerves simple. It is a native of IMount Baldo, among bro- 

 ken rocks, and of the Alps of Corinthia ; also of North America, in 

 alpine rivulets on the Rocky Mountains. It flowers in April and 

 May. 



Saxifra^a hyponoidcs. Hypnum Saxifrage. This plant rises on- 

 ly from three to eight inches high, gemmifei'ous ; surculi very long, 

 procumbent; radical leaves five or three parted; surculine leaves 

 simple, linear, stiff, ciliated, mucronately awned, furnished with 

 ovate, acute, buds in the axils ; calycine segments triangularly ovate, 

 awned ; petals roundish, obovate, white, tripple-nerved, rose-colored 

 on the outside at the apex ; nerves siinple ; the herb is densely tuft- 

 ed before flowering, quite glabrous, but afterwards becoming loose, 

 surculose, and villous ; from two to four flowered. This is a native 

 of the Alps of Switzerland, Austria, and Pyrenees. In Britain, in 

 the north of England, Scotland, and North Wales, in both the Upper 

 and Lower Canadas, on high rocky mountains ; as well as on lime- 

 stone rocks, walls, and roofs in less elevated situations, abundantly. 

 It flowers in April. 



Medical properties and Uses. Linnaeus describes the taste of this 

 plant to be acrid and pungent, which we have not been able to dis- 

 cover; neither the tubercles of the root, nor the leaves manifest to 

 the organs of taste any quality likely to be of medicinal use, and 

 therefore, though these species of Saxifrage has been long employed 

 as a popular remedy in nephritic and gravelly disorders, yet we do 

 not find either from its sensible qualities, or from any published 

 instances of its efBcacy, that it deserves a place in the Materia 

 Medica. 



The superstitious doctrine of Signatures suggested the use of the 

 root, which is a good example of what Linnaeus has termed radix 



