SAXIFRAGA. 



SAXIFRAGACE/E. 



G}0 



la Gola Bianca and Stiaccino of the Italians ; Furzechat and Blackberry 

 Eater of the English ; and Clochder yr Eithin of the Welsh. 



The old male has the top of the head, sides of the neck, and upper 

 parts of the body, blackish-brown ; each feather with a wide border 

 of rusty-yellow ; above the eyes an elongated streak of white, reaching 

 to the occiput ; throat and longitudinal streak on each side of the 

 neck pure white ; front of the neck and breast fine bright rusty ; a 

 great spot on the wings and tail of pure white ; extremity of tail, as 

 well as the two middle quills, and all the shafts, blackish-brown. 

 Length nearly five inches. 



Female. With yellowish-white wherever the male has pure white ; 

 the white space on the wing less, and all the feathers with a small 

 brown spot ; the rust of the breast is less pure, and the lower parts, as 

 well as the upper part of the tail, are rusty white. 



The young have white and grayish spots all over their plumage. 



It is found in Norway, Sweden, temperate Russia, but not Siberia : 

 all southern Europe to the Mediterranean shore : common in Smyrna 

 in winter. (Strickland.) In the British Islands they are generally, but 

 not numerously, diffused in the summer; have been seen in the 

 Hebrides, but are not recorded as having visited Orkney or Shetland. 

 They arrive here about the middle of April, but, as a general rule, 

 depart in autumn. 



The flight of the Whinchat is undulating, and it flits from bush to 

 bush, perching on one of the topmost twigs. Furze commons are its 

 favourite haunts. Worms, insects, small shell-molluscs, and slugs, form 

 its principal food, but it also eats berries. The nest resembles that 

 of the Stonechat, and is formed of dry grass stalks and a little moss, 

 the lining being finer bents or stalks. It is usually placed on the 

 ground. 



The gong is very pleasing, and resembles, according to Bechstein, 

 that of the Goldfinch ; and the bird will sing not only during the day, 

 but in the evening, and sometimes at night. 



WhinchaU become, like the Wheatear, very fat in August, and, 

 though smaller, are equally delicate for the table. 



In the 'Portraits d'Oyseaux' the following quatrain is printed 

 under the figure of this species : 



" Es aummitoz des buiunns honhe 1'feUe 

 Inceasamment le Traquet ou Tarter ; 

 Et le vnyant sang eesse varier, 

 Comme un traquet dc moulin on 1'appclle." 



Whinchat (Saxicola rutftra). 

 I'ppcr figure, female ; lower figure, male. 



SAX'IFRAGA (from 'saxum' and 'frango,' in allusion to their sup- 

 posed medical virtues), a genus of Plants, the type of the natural order 

 Xaxifragacta. It is characterised by possessing a calyx, either free 

 or partly united to the ovary, and divided into 5 segments ; a corolla 



KAT. HIST. DIV. VOL. IV. 



consisting of 5 petals; 10 stamens, with awl-shaped filaments and 

 roundish anthers ; pistils having two styles with obtuse stigmas ; a 

 capsule with 2 beaks, 2-celled, many-seeded, opening between the 

 beaks ; the seeds upon a receptacle attached to the dissepiment. 



Of the species 24 are British. They are mostly inhabitants of alpine 

 and subalpine regions of the colder and temperate parts of the northern 

 zone. They are most of them true rock plants, and send forth their 

 roots between the crevices of the rocks on which they grow. 



S. umbrosa, London-Pride, or None-so-Pretty. Calyx reflexed ; leaves 

 undivided, obovate, with sharp cartilaginous teeth, tapering gradually 

 into a broad foot-stalk which varies in length; scape from 9 to 18 

 inches high, erect, panioled, red and hairy, with a few small scattered 

 entire bracts ; flowers numerous, with obtuse petals, white or flesh- 

 coloured, beautifully spotted with yellow near the base, and dark red 

 towards the extremity; capsule superior, purplish. This plant was 

 found by Tournefort on the hills of Spain, and is a native of Great 

 Britain and Ireland. It is one of the most popular of garden flowers, 

 blossoming in April and June, and attaining perfection even amidst 

 the smoke of London. In Ireland it is known by the name of St. 

 Patrick's Cabbage. 



S. Geum, Kidney-Leaved Saxifrage. Calyx reflexed ; leaves undivided, 

 roundish, kidney-shaped, sharply toothed, more or less hairy; foot- 

 stalks linear, channelled; scape panicled, capsules superior. This 

 species is found on mountains in the south of Irelaud, and is considered 

 by some botanists as only a variety of the former. 



& granulata, White or Granulated Meadow Saxifrage. Calyx 

 spreading; radical leaves, kidney-shaped, on long footstalks, obtusely 

 lobed ; those of the upper part of the stem nearly sessile, acutely 

 lobed; stem panicled, root consisting of numerous small clustered 

 tubers. This plant is found in Great Britain, and, though not common, 

 is abundant on gravelly soils. The roots of this species, forming as 

 they do little granular masses, were at one time sold in the shops 

 under the name of Saxifrage Seed. 



SAXIFRAGA'CE.E, Saxifrages, a natural order of Plants belonging 

 to the apocarpous group of Polypetalous Exogens. It consists of 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants with single alternate leaves without 

 stipules. The calyx consists of five sepals more or less united at the 

 base ; the petals are equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, and 

 alternate with them. The stamens are perigynous, 5-10 in number; 

 anthers 5-celled ; they have an hypogynous or perigynous disc ; the 

 ovary is inferior, or nearly superior, consisting of two carpels, which 

 cohere more or less by their face at the base, but diverge at the apex ; 

 1- or 2-celled, with a parietal or central placenta. They have no 

 styles, and the stigma is sessile on the tops of the lobes of the ovary. 

 The seeds are numerous, very minute ; the embryo is taper, lying in 

 the axis of fleshy albumen. The genus Pamassia belonging to this 

 order differs in having four parietal placentae, which are opposite the 

 lobes of the stigma. [PARK ASSIA.] The genus Heuchem has irregular 

 flowers and stipules. 



Saxifraga granulata, 



a, entire plant ; I, calyx cohering to the carpels, with perifrynous stamens 

 r, longitudinal section of flower, showing the half superior ovary and ovules 

 attached to central placenta', with the relation of the stamens to the petali. 



This order is most nearly allied to Rosacece, but it differs in its 

 many-seeded partially-united carpels, its albuminous seeds, and in its 

 not possessing stipules. The habit of Saxifragacete allies them to 

 Caryophyllaceae, but they differ in the character of their placenta, the 

 situation of the embryo, and other points. This order also approaches 



2 r 



