214 THE STORY OF PLANT LIFE 



English prefix denotes its predilection for meadows. 

 Another characteristic is noted by the second Latin 

 name, referring to the little granulate tubers, or bulbs 

 or bulbils, grain-like, produced in the axils of the 

 lower leaves. The name Saxifrage, applied owing to 

 the fact that the plants may grow in clefts (stone- 

 breaker) and help to widen them, was also in the 

 long past connected with a supposed remedy for 

 " stone " in man, by doctrine of signatures. 



Meadow Saxifrage is a generally distributed plant, 

 found in most counties in the British Isles. It, how- 

 ever, is not found in the Highlands and is rare in 

 Ireland. In Yorkshire it ascends to 1500 ft. 



Sandy and gravelly slopes or banks, meadows, and 

 pastures are the chief habitats of this plant. It grows 

 on clays and loams in neutral grassland. 



The habit is that of a rosette plant, with a tufted 

 manner of growth, with numerous radical leaves, 

 which are succulent and hairy, and the plant is thus 

 adapted to dry conditions. It is propagated vege- 

 tatively by the brown, downy, scaly bulbils. 



The whole plant is glandular, downy. The stem 

 is erect. The leaves are radical, stalked, kidney- 

 shaped, palmately lobed, or scalloped. The stem- 

 leaves are without stalks, with the lobes of the leaves 

 more deeply and acutely cut. The leaf-stalks are 

 channelled, to allow the water to drain off the leaf- 

 surface. The lower leaves are stalked. 



The flowers are large, three to six, bell-shaped, 

 drooping, white, in a close, cymose, terminal panicle. 



