LAS T. ORDER II. J PIUPINKLLA. 367 



1. P. Saxi'fraija, Linn. (Fig. 431.1 common Burnet Saxifrage. 

 Leaves pinnate ; leaflets of the radical ones roundish ovate, lobed, 

 toothed or serrated, those of the upper ones in liuear segments ; stem 

 round, slender, striated, nearly naked ahove ; fruit ovate smooth. 



English Botany, t. 407. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 89. Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. ii. p. 130. Lindley, Synopsis, p. 121. 



(3. dissectifolia. Leaflets of all the leaves cut into linear segments. 

 P. Saxifrage, disseclifolia. Wallr. P. hircina. Leers. 



Root tapering, somewhat woody, having a pungent aromatic smell. 

 Stem erect, from a few inches to two feet high, ronnd, slender, finely 

 striated, smooth or clothed like the rest of the plant, with a close soft 

 down, simple or branched, leafy below, almost naked above. Leave* 

 almost all radical, on long slender channeled footstalks, dilated at the 

 base into a broad short membranous sheath. Leaflets opposite, sessile, 

 or on short footstalks, roundish oblong, or ovate, the terminal one 

 mostly three-cleft, the margins more or less deeply cut and coarsely 

 toothed or crenated, the upper leaves or the whole of them as in the 

 variety-/S. dissectifolia. They are twice pinnate, and the leaflets cut 

 into narrow linear simple or cleft decurrent segments, green abovei 

 paler and somewhat glaucous beneath, with a prominent mid-rib and 

 branched lateral veins, and the under side is mostly thicker clothed 

 with a softer down than the upper. Umbels terminal and lateral, the 

 general of numerous slender angular somewhat unequal rays, partial 

 of numerous short unequal ones. General and partial involucre 

 wanting. Flowers white, nearly regular. Calyx a scarcely distin- 

 guishable obtuse somewhat waved margin. Petals obovate, slightly 

 notched, with an obtuse inflexed point, about half as long as the petal. 

 Stamens with long slender filaments and small round anthers. Styles 

 long, slender, somewhat recurved. Stigma small, round, obtuse. 

 Disk large^convex, fleshy crowning the fruit, which is ovate, the sides 

 compressed. Carpels with five ridges, the lateral ones forming the 

 margins, two lateral towards the back, and one forming a ridge on the 

 back. Channels with numerous slender simple vittce. Albumen 

 roundish gibbous at the back, plain in front. 



Habitat. Dry places and pastures; frequent. 



Perennial; flowering in July and August. 



The varieties of this species are very puzzling to the young student, 

 from the varied forms which the leaves assume. It is not unfrequent 

 that on one plant the leaves are both with ovate leaflets more or less 

 cut and toothed, and with leaves having the leaflets much divided into 

 linear segments, and it is not unfrequent to find the variety /9. dissecti- 

 folia with all the leaves cut in the same manner. The student will 

 also frequently meet with the plant of different sizes, and with the 

 leaflets more or less deeply cut, and also variously clothed with 

 pubescence, owing to the greater or less humidity of the situation of 



