SAXIFRAGACEAE. 125 



Family 44. SAXIFRAGACEAE. Saxifrage Family. 



Herbs or shrubs ; leaves alternate or opposite; stipules usually 

 none; flowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious ; calyx usually 5- 

 lobed, free or adherent to the ovary; petals usually 4 or 5, 

 perigynous, rarely none; stamens usually definite in number and 

 not more than twice the number of the calyx-lobes ; pistil formed 

 by the partial or complete union of 2-5 carpels; placentae axile 

 or parietal; seeds usually numerous; endosperm present; em- 

 bryo small. 



177 RIBES. Currant, Gooseberry. 



Low sometimes prickly shrubs; leaves alternate, often fas- 

 cicled, palmately- veined and lobed; flowers small, solitary or 

 racemose, mostly terminating short and 1-2-leaved axillary 

 shoots; calyx-tube adherent to the globose ovary and more or 

 less extended beyond it, 5-, rarely 4-cleft, commonly colored or 

 petal-like; petals 4-5, small, perigynous; stamens as many as 

 the petals and alternate with them; styles 2, more or less united; 

 ovary 1-celled; ovules few or numerous; berry globose, fleshy, 

 usually many-seeded. 



Stems armed with spines at the nodes, and often prickly also; 

 fruit not separating from the pedicel. 

 Calyx-lobes longer than the tube; stamens decidedly 



longer than the whole calyx. R. niveum. 



Calyx-lobes not longer than the tube. 



Stamens scarcely longer than the whole calyx; 



flowers green. R. purpusi. 



Stamens decidedly shorter than the whole calyx; 

 flowers white. 

 Calyx-tube cylindric, pubescent. R. cognatum. 



Calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous. R. irriguum. 



Stems not armed with spines but in some species prickly; 

 fruit easily separating from the pedicel. 

 Stems prickly; calyx saucer-shaped; racemes pendent. R. lacustre. 

 Stems not prickly; calyx various. 



