228 TEAXSACTIOXS A^;D PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Skss. lviil 



Mr. Dunn remarked that he had seen variegated speci- 

 mens of mistletoe, but only on unhealthy hosts. 



XOTE ON THE OkIGIN AND HiSTORY OF SaXIFRAGA 



Wallacei, Hort. By J. Grieve. 



As I am aware that the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 

 does not confine its attention to matters of purely scientific 

 botany, but takes a great interest in everythiDg relating to 

 horticulture also, I need scarcely apologise for bringing 

 under your notice the subject of the origin and history of a 

 now well-known plant, namely, Sax^fraga Wallacei. I am 

 the more anxious to place this subject before you, seeing 

 that doubts still exist in the minds of many — both as to 

 the parentage of the plant and its raiser * ; and being 

 acquainted with its history from the beginning, I am able 

 to speak with some degree of confidence on the subject. 



In 1873, Messrs. Jas. Backhouse & Son, of York, sent out 



* Under S. Camposii, Boiss. et Rent., in the " Botanical Magazine," 

 t. 6640, which had been in cultivation for many years at Kew, 

 Mr. Baker places as a synonym S. Wallacei, Hort., and says : — 

 " According to Witlkinson, its [S. Camposii] nearest affinity is with 

 S. trifuj-cata, Schrad. (' Botanical Magazine,' t. 1651), and -V. cimeata, 

 WiJld., but to me it appears to be scarcely distinguishable from S. 

 Maiceana, Baker (' Botanical Magazine,' t. 63S4), except in the smaller 

 leaves, which seem never to assume the reuiform shape. It is true that, 

 judging by the dried native specimens, .S'. Camposii is a stouter, more 

 rigid species, with a more crowded rosette of leaves, and shorter 

 peduncles and pedicels, but under cultivation these differences are so 

 considerably modified that the two plants may not unreasonably be 

 regarded as geographical forms, one inhabiting the southern mountains 

 of Spain, the other the northernmost ones of Marocco. The S. 

 maderensis represents the same type in its western limit of growth — 

 the island of Madeira ; the .S". cuntata of the Pyrenees represents the 

 northern limit within the Peninsular area ; within that area occur the 

 equally or, indeed, more closely connected forms of .S". obscura, Gren. 

 and Godr., and S. canaliculata, Boiss. et Rent. : and it would not be 

 difficult to connect all with the forms that occur under other names 

 elsewhere in Western Eivrope." This is interesting taken in connection 

 with the following dogmatic assertion of a writer in the " Garden," 

 XXXV. (1889), p. 420: — " -S'. Wallacei, however it may have found its 

 way to the Dean Cemetery, is S. Camposii, Boiss., cultivated for many 

 years in gardens, and having nothing to do with 5. Maiceana.'' As 

 illustrating the confusion that exists regarding these dactyloid saxi- 

 fragas, the following quotation from another writer in the '• Garden," 

 xxix. (1891), p. 545, may be noted : — " True S. Camposii of Boissier is 

 very seldom met with in cultivation, and I question whether it is to be 

 found growing in any garden except that of M. Boissier himself, or of 

 some one to whom he may have given a specimen of the plant."' 



J 



