UMBELLIFEK^— UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 37 



the highest parts of the Highland mountains, near rills. Though a small 

 plant, it often grows in large quantities, and we have seen masses of it on 

 bogs at Tunbridge Wells, looking quite beautiful as the sun shone on its 

 small clusters of yellow flowers and yelloAvish-green leaves, so that the plant 

 was like a stream of gold among the greener mosses ; while the water-wagtails 

 were pecking at its young btids Avith great delight, and the willow-wren 

 singing a song of thankfulness for the loveliness of the heathy waste. This 

 plant was renowned among the old herbalists for certain poAvers which they 

 supposed it to possess, of removing melancholy and such maladies as were 

 ])resumed to ai'ise from a disordered spleen. It cannot, however, have any 

 powerful medicinal properties, for it is in common use as a salad in the 

 Vosges, where the peasant terms it Oresson cle rochc. Its golden hue is alluded 

 to in several of its European names. The French call it La Dorine. It is 

 the Goklmih of the German ; the Goudveil of the Dutch ; the Gylden steenhrck 

 of the Danes ; and the Gul atenhrdck of the Swedes. 



2. Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage (C. alternifolium). — Leaves 

 alternate, lower ones somewhat kidney-shaped, upon very long foot-stalks ; 

 flowers generally with eight stamens. Plant perennial. This species, which 

 is frequent in Scotland, is rather rare on the boggy lands of England. Its 

 flat lunbcls of flowers are of a deep golden yellow, and may be seen from 

 April to June. The stems arc usually four or five inches in height, but in 

 some places Avhere the plant is luxuriant they are much higher, and it there 

 overtops its frequent companion, the commoner Golden Saxifrage. The 

 foot-stalks of the lower leaves of this species are very long, scarcely less than 

 half the length of the stem. The stem, which is erect at the upper part, is 

 often prostrate at the base. Sir Wm. Hooker and Dr. Arnott describe the 

 common species as of a paler colour than this in all its parts, and it is so 

 usually ; but in some places, as in an alder copse on Reigate Heath, mentioned 

 by Mr. Luxford, it appears that this is of the paler tint, and that the bright 

 yellow-green of its upper leaves, and the pale yellow flowers, contrast there 

 with the darker green of C. oppositifoliiim. 



Order XXXVIII. UMBELLIFERiE — UMBELLIFEROUS 



TRIBE. 



Calyx superior, 5-toothed, often reduced to a mere margin ; petals 5, 

 sometimes of very unequal size, the outer being the largest; stamens 5, 

 alternate with the petals, curved inwards when in bud ; ovary inferior, 

 2-celled, crowned by a fleshy disk, which bears the pistils and stamens ; 

 styles 2 ; stigmas small ; fruit composed of 2 carpels, or seed-vessels, which 

 adhere by their faces to a central stalk, from which they separate below, 

 when matured, and are attached by the upper extremity only. These carpels, 

 or seed-vessels, are what are inaccurately termed, by persons unacquainted 

 M'ith botany, the seeds. They are variously shaped, and each carpel is 

 marked by five vertical ridges, with four intermediate ones; these ridges, 

 which are in some cases very apparent, can in others hardly be traced. They 

 are separated hy channels, beneath which are placed minute slender brown 

 lines embedded in the skin of the seeds. These are termed vifke. When 



