SAXIFRAGA. 



leaves, calyces, and foot -stalks all purpled as in S. media. That is to 

 say, S. X luteo-purpurea is precisely the golden mean between the 

 parents. Then comes S. X ambigua, DC, 1815. This is a secondary 

 cross of Supra -media tendency — that is, having more in it of S. media 

 (which no doubt crossed again on to the primary hybrid S. X luteo- 

 purpurea to produce it), so that S.X ambigua has a double dose of its 

 original father. It has the purple petals of S. media, but the foliage 

 and habit are those of S. X luteo-purpurea. Then, on the other side of 

 the family stands the Supra -aretioeid, S. X Lapeyrousei , Don., 1882, 

 where the influence of S. aretioeides predominates in this, the primary 

 hybrid, which has spreading flower-panicles, and not the elongating 

 spike of S. media ; and the habit and golden flower of 8. aretioeides, 

 with larger and broader foliage due to S. media. Thus we have on 

 the one side a primary hybrid leaning to S. aretioeides (S. X Lapey- 

 rousei), a primary hybrid standing midway between the parents 

 (S. X luteo-purpurea), and a secondary hybrid of this (S. X ambigua) 

 leaning away towards S. media. All hopes of certainty and safety 

 in the matter are, however, doomed. For these hybrids breed 

 with each other backwards and forwards in and out interminably, 

 and not only has Siindermann of late years sent forth many named 

 forms representing various shades of interbreeding among them, 

 but he has also got the original relationships of the primaries con- 

 fused and reversed ; so that his S. X luteo-purpurea is not the old 

 primary and intermediate hybrid of Lapeyrouse, but a plant com- 

 ing close to one of its parents. His other forms — said to have been 

 collected among the species in the Pyrenees, but which may equally 

 well be raised by any one who can induce the two parents or any of 

 their hybrids to seed side by side in the garden (a good action in which 

 they are especially profuse) — are, elaborately labelled (and priced), as 

 follows : S. Xflavescens, aurantiaca, erubescens, ambigua, and luteo- 

 purpurea — all these, of his naming, being Supra -aretioeids, that is, 

 with S. aretioeides predominating in all the forms, which are pleasant 

 and easy-going tuffets of foliage, with spreading fluffy -calyxed panicles 

 of flowers in many Water- A vens shades of apricot, orange, and terra- 

 cotta. On the other side he emits a second string of names, these 

 all being Supra -nicdias, with S. media dominant in habit and flower — 

 larger tufts, broader leaves, in goodly rosettes, and taller stems with 

 blossoms in loose and showering spikes, with the fading Water-Avens 

 tones here inclining to old rose and mud-colour and sad worn salmon 

 and crushed bad strawberries ; these are they : S. racemiflora, " Lapey- 

 rousei," Godroniana, and Grenierii. The whole range, indeed, is most 

 interesting and fascinating ; of the last group the best, I think, are 



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