74 SAXIFRAGA VIRGINIENSIS. EARLY WHITE SAXIFRAGE. 



given to the plant — Saxifraga — is from the Latin, signifying 

 " to break a rock," and owes its origin to the fact that some of 

 the species grow in rocky crevices, as we have described this 

 one to do. The common name of the family in Germany is 

 " Stonebreak," but we have become so familiar with the Angli- 

 cized Latin Saxifrage that it has entered into our popular 

 botanical language. Our species is known among lovers of 

 wild flowers as the " Early Saxifrage.," which, for Pennsylvania 

 and thereabouts, is distinction enough. 



It is remarkable that so large and so well-known a family of 

 plants should have proved of so little importance to man. 

 None of the Saxifrages seem to have excited poetic fire, nor 

 have they entered in any way into the arts. Our present species 

 is, however, deserving of some notice for its expressive beauty. 

 Rocks are occasionally met with so rugged and bare that there 

 seems no chance for any living thing beyond mosses and lich- 

 ens to find a place for existence on them. Scarcely a moss may 

 be seen on their whole surface ; yet if there be a ledge or 

 crevice, and it be in the vicinity of the Early Saxifrage, the 

 rock will be found dotted with it. Our specimen was gathered 

 near Germantown, Pa., under just these circumstances there 

 seemed nothing but this plant growing there. In early spring, 

 before the flower-stems have started into growth, there are few 

 prettier sights than a rock sprinkled with these little green 

 plants. 



The plant itself affords a good study for the ornamental 

 artist. Before it flowers it forms one of the most beautiful 

 rosettes imaginable. The outline is a perfect circle, and the 

 spoon-like leaves, regularly notched and as regularly disposed 

 around their common centre, give as much variety to the 

 otherwise geometrical form as one can desire, while the little 

 central flower-bud, just ready to push, makes an excellent termi- 

 nation to the whole. For the central ornament in a piece of 

 carving, it would furnish an admirable pattern, or in any case 

 where a starting-point of regular and yet varied form is desira- 



