SAXIFRAGA. 



For it is a rare species, not so easily kept as S. Sibthorpii, which is the 

 pretender that bears its name in general use. The true S. Cymbalaria, L., 

 gives its name to the section of damp shade-loving annual little fleshy- 

 leaved species with golden flowers ; in growth, form, and foliage it 

 justifies its name by exactly recalling Linaria Cymbalaria, but, though 

 in all its parts it so resembles the common Toad -flax of the wall, the 

 kidney-shaped leaves are not succulent, and have the brown striping 

 characteristic of the section, with a good number of pointed lobes. 

 The blossoms are golden stars, and the calyx-segments curl backward 

 only at fruit ing time. 



S. cymosa. See under S. pedemontana. 



S. dalmatica is a catalogue-name for a small yellow-flowered Kab- 

 schia, possibly no more than S. Ferdinandi Coburgi or S. Desoulavyi. 



S. debilis is a weakly small alpine of Colorado, with stems of 2 or 3 

 inches with scalloped little kidney-shaped leaves at the base, and two 

 or three flowers of pinkish white. 



S. decipiens. — This huge name covers the largest group of Mossies in 

 the garden, being really only a despairful aggregate-description to em- 

 brace a vast series of forms ranging from fat-leaved fleshy S. caespitosa 

 at one end, to thin and fine-leaved S. hypnoeides at the other. Its 

 chief diagnostics are the erect flower-buds, the big flat fat flowers, and 

 the rather broad and rather blunt lobes to the foliage. All the forms vary 

 widely in nature, according to situation, and freely interbreed, there 

 as in the garden, so that the bestowal of endless names in cultivation is 

 as profitable as weaving ropes of sand. All that can be said is that all 

 forms are invaluable big Mossies for any reasonable situation, very 

 solid in growth as well as very fine and large and free in bloom. Of 

 late years a race has arisen called 8. d. " hybrida." These are huge 

 and obese, with broad plate-like coarse blossoms of red or pink or 

 cream, that have exchanged their birthright of grace and charm for 

 heavy ostentation and a blowzy coarseness of appeal. Accordingly 

 they are most dearly cherished by catalogues, which give them fine 

 and finer names each year ; among them are S. bathoniensis, Clibrani, 

 and niany more — not indeed to be unjustly despised, any more 

 than preposterously praised ; for, while they have lost the elegance 

 of then race, they have a noble showy value of their own, inde- 

 structible rough strong growers and abundant in flower. Some of 

 the smaller varieties, too, approaching S. x " Rhei," and partaking 

 of the same blood, are not only really brilliant in their crimsons, 

 but pleasant and neat in their smaller habit. Such are Red 

 Admiral and many others. As for S. " Rhei " of gardens, this 

 originates between S. decipiens and S. sponhemica, together with 



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