76 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



few, resembling the others, but with shorter petioles. Bracts 3-cleft 

 or entire, opposite or solitary. Plowers solitary, or in a cyme of 

 2 or 3, on very long pedicels. Calyx - segments ovate, as long 

 as the tube; calyx-tube hemispherical, adhering to the ovary. 

 Petals oblong, exceeding the sepals. Capsule nearly two-thirds 

 superior, exceeding the calyx-segments, with 2 very short beaks- 

 Plant sparingly glandular-pubescent. 



On damp ledges of Alpine rocks. Rare. Most abundant on the 

 mountains of Braemar, but also on Ben-Nevis, Ben-Lawers, and 

 also stated to occur in Porfarshire and Moray. 



Scotland. Perennial. Summer. 



Stems 1 to 3 inches long, growing in small tufts. Petioles of 

 the radical leaves about as long as the stems ; lamina ^ to f inch 

 across. Plowers white, ^ inch in diameter. Petals varying from 

 a quarter to twice as long as the sepals. Capsule i- to ^ inch 

 long, suddenly acuminated into 2 short diverging beaks, the 

 superior part with a few prominent transverse veins. Plant dull 

 lurid green, sparingly clothed with long, shaggy, jointed, glandular 

 hairs. 



The barren shoots of this plant have the bases of the short 

 leaf-stalks (which are destitute of laminae) thickened so as to form 

 small bulbs; later in the year some of these shoots may be 

 found elongated, with the scale-like bases of the leaf-stalks more 

 remote, and often bearing the rudiment of a lamina ; in which case 

 they have some resemblance to the young subterranean stolons of 

 EpUobium alsinifolium. 



Aljnne Brook Saxifrage. 



SPECIES XII.— SAXIFRAGA CERNUA. Linn. 



Plate DLIV. 



Perennial. Barren shoots represented by oblong-ovoid scaly 

 bulbs at the crown of the rootstock. Stem erect, simple, curved 

 at the apex before flowering, at length straight. Lowest leaves 

 stalked, roundish-reniform in outline, palmately 5-lobed, cordate at 

 the base ; lobes roundish or ovate, subacute ; petioles slender, about 

 twice as long as the lamina; stem-leaves numerous, shortly 

 stalked, the lower ones resembling the root-leaves, but with 

 longer and more acute lobes ; upper stem-leaves rhomboidal and 

 lobed, the upj)crmost <3ntire, most of them, especially the upper- 

 most,- with scaly bulbs in the axils. Bracts entire, strapshaped, 

 solitary. Plowers solitary, or in a cyme of 2 or 3, on rather short 



