32 SAXIFRAGES. 



greatest worth is the beauty of its flowers, which often adorn lofty moun- 

 tains, or in other cases deck the barren wail or rock. They are frequently 

 the most lovely objects in Alpine wildernesses, flowering with the blue 

 gentians in spots almost inaccessible to the traveller, and giving by their 

 leaves an almost perpetual verdure to barren soils. Some species grow on 

 marshes or by river-sides. 



1. Saxifrage (Saxifraga). — Calyx in 5 divisions; petals 5; stamens 10; 

 styles 2 ; capsule 2-celled, 2-beaked, opening between the beaks ; seeds 

 numerous. Name from saxum, a stone, and frango, to break, probably from 

 some species growing among the crevices of rocks. 



2. Golden Saxifrage {ChrysospUnium). — Calyx with 4 or 5 lobes ; petals 

 none; stamens 8, rarely 10; styles 2; capsules 2, beaked. Name from the 

 Greek, chrysos, gold, and splen, the spleen, from some imagined virtues of the 

 plant. 



1. Saxifrage {Saxifraga). 



Calyx reflexed, inferior ; flowers whitish, panicled. 



1. Starry Saxifrage (S. stelldris). — Leaves oblong, wedge-shaped, 

 toothed, scarcely stalked ; panicles of few flowers. Plant perennial. This 

 plant grows on mountainous places by the side of rivulets, or on wet rocks, 

 in Scotland, England, Wales, and the north of Ireland. It is from two to 

 five inches high, its leaves having large roundish notches at their edges. The 

 few flowers expand in June and July. They are white, with two yellow 

 spots at the base of each petal. 



2. London Pride {S. umhrdsa). — Leaves roundish, oval, with white 

 cartilaginous notches, tapering at the base into a flat foot-stalk. Plant 

 perennial. This beautiful little flower is well known as one of the few which 

 will bear unhurt the smoke of large cities. It grows well in London, flourish- 

 ing not only in the squares and open parts of the great city, where many 

 hardy flowers may be found, but cheering also some of the gloomy little 

 spots at the backs of houses in densely populated neighbourhoods. One 

 sighs at the sight of these small plots, though glad that when even the 

 " mournful mint " seemed injured by the sooty mist gathered about it, yet 

 the London Pride survived all the ills of its condition, and perchance soothed 

 some careworn heart by its cheerful flower. Bishop Mant thus alludes to 

 this and another plant : — 



" Its disk of white ou upland wolds 

 The pretty Saxifrage unfolds, 

 With lucid spots of crimson pied, 

 Hence brought, and hail'd the City's Pride ; 

 And yellow rose-root yields its smell 

 From Camhrian ci'ag or Cumbrian fell, 

 Or Rachliu's lone basaltic isle." 



This Saxifrage is found on the mountains of Ireland so plentifully, that 

 it has the common name of St. Patrick's Cabbage. It is also called None-so- 

 pretty ; and the old name of Queen Anne's Needlework was doubtless given 

 from the delicate red spots traced on its white petals, and which to some of 

 the embi'oiderers, who in those days practised the mysteries of "tent work, 

 raised work, laid work, frost work, Irish stitch, fern stitch, Spanish stitch, 



