SAXIFRAGA. 



may flee into the uttermost parts of them and never escape its silver- 

 beaded neat immortal rosettes and its 6- or 10-inch plumes of creamy 

 white in early summer. The type, if doubt ever arose or could arise, 

 may always be told from kinsmen such as H. Hostii, S. incrustata, &c, 

 by the fact that the serrations of the leaves point upwards and 

 forvjard, instead of being minute triangular saw-teeth standing out- 

 wards. And the chief varieties of the species are these : 



S. aei. atropurpurea, a most iniquitous invention of catalogues to 

 sell you 8. aei. rosea under another name. 



S. aei. balcana is smaller, and paler in the green of its leaves, which 

 seem shorter and broader than those of the type, because they curve 

 inwards more strongly. The stems are sturdy and red, about 5 inches 

 high, bearing large stolid flowers very densely covered with large 

 crimson dots. This form is not always as hearty of temper as the 

 others, having a tendency to go brown and miff off in parts. It 

 seems to have a special dislike to any excess of water, and may quite 

 possibly bring into the garden, unlike the rest, the family disinclina- 

 tion for limy soils. It is one of the most beautiful — short and sturdy 

 in the stem, and amply furnished with large, solid, and ample flowers 

 dotted almost to duskiness with crimson on their white ground. 



8. aei. baldensis is a very minute and huddled form from the high 

 limestones of Baldo, where its aspect is so minute and massed that on 

 first sight from afar I thought I must be approaching S. diapensioeides. 

 In cultivation it keeps almost as small as at home, rapidly covers wide 

 stretches, and has the further charm of being of burnished crimson 

 on the under-sides of its tiny foliage. The flowers are of no account, 

 as is so commonly the case in the limestone Aeizoons, being rather 

 cramped and mean in shape, dingy and creamy in colour. 



S. aei. brevifolia is a smaller form than the type also sent out as 

 A. aei. minor. 



A. aei. Camposii, carniolica, carinihiaca (with petals unspotted), 

 cultrata, cuneata, dubia are all local or horticultural forms not satis- 

 factorily distinct, and 8. cartilaginea (Willd.) may count as a species. 



8. aei. Correvoniana bears minute flattened rosettes, in the line of 

 8. aei. venetia and 8. aei. baldensis, and it is to be hoped may be 

 worthy of the august ascription it bears, especially in a group so 

 crowded with unnecessary names. 



S. aei. elongata is a large-rosetted, very spidery -leaved green form, 

 which has the look of being merely an etiolate woodland development 

 in the shaded places where it may rarely be seen in the Alps {e.g. 

 Iseltwald, by Brienz), yet keeps its habit in cultivation, and is strikingly 

 distinct, accordingly, in the rosette ; the flowers continue the drawn 

 (1,996) 241 n. — Q 



