SAXIFRAGA. 



S. monUifoniensis is a form of 8. Cotyledon from Montafon in the 

 Eastern Alps. It has no special distinction ; the spikes are stiff and 

 often red, while the small starry galaxies have more or less of red- 

 spotting. 



8. montenegrina is an Engleria, in the kinship of S. Griesbachi 

 and S. Stribnryi. 



S. jiwschata, Wulf., is the common dwarf little carpeting Mossy 

 with stems of an inch or two, canying flowers that vary from creamy- 

 white to rose and red, all over the pleasant mats of smooth and 

 hairless bright -green leaves, tri-cleft into long, blunt, and more or less 

 parallel lobes without channelling. It is so variable a species, and with 

 so vast a range over all the Alps, that it has been more justly named 

 S. varians (Sieb.). Typically it is rather a dull little plant on the 

 hills, the blossoms being of indecisive greenish-red or dulled-yellow 

 tones. In the garden, however, it develops better varieties, and is of 

 use as a carpet -plant, being so dwarf and neat and spreading in habit. 

 But it must be remembered that most of the well-coloured red -flowered 

 small Mossies sent out as S. moschata (or, more usually, S. " mus- 

 coeides ") in reality belong to the range of S. hypnoeides — S. sponhemica. 

 Some varieties of the true species are : 



S. mosch. atropurpurea. — The warning in the last lino is specially 

 to be noted here, for many are the lovely sheeting Hypnoeides- 

 dwarfs with red flowers that are sent forth as this, which is a type 

 of Switzerland and the Carpathians, compact or loose in mat, and 

 with blossoms of deep dark reddish tone. The characters of the 

 species, as given above, will be the surest guide to diagnosis. 



S. mosch. compacta is a densely fine carpet, with the leaves closely 

 packed and overlapping on the short shoots. 



S. mosch. glandulosa, in the possession of glandular coating ap- 

 proaches closely to S. mixta, from which it will always be told at a 

 glance by its unchannelled leaves. 



S. mosch. laxa is a loose variation from moister places, being more 

 drawn out, with longer shoots, and the leaves often five-cleft. The 

 flower-stems are longer, too, carrying more and larger flowers, of 

 dull white. This is the true 8. Bhei, Schott, the garden -plant that 

 bears the name being merely a selected link in the long chain of 

 S. decipiens — S. sponhemica. 



S. mosch. pygmaea makes especially compact little tussocks, with 

 the foliage more fleshy than in the type, and either undivided or only 

 three-cleft. It is also especially generous with its flower-stems. 



8. " muscoeides," of gardens, is always S. moschata, Wulf., when it 

 is not a form of 8. hypnoeides. 



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