600 SAXIFRAGA. [CLASS X. ORDER II. 



Sect. 2 HIRCULUS. Tausch. Hort. Canal, fasc. 1. De Cand. prod, 

 p. 4. p. 44. Stem leafy. Leaves alternate, narrow, plane, entire, 

 ciliated, or toothed. Calyx reflexed, erect, or spreading. 



2. S. Hir'culus, Linn. (Fig. 680.) Yellow Marsh Saxifrage. Stem 

 erect, leafy, slender, prostrate at the base, downy above ; leaves alter- 

 nate, lanceolate, flat, entire, veiny, the radical ones petiolated; calyx 

 inferior, reflexed, the segments obtuse, the margins ciliated ; petals 

 obovate, veiny, with a two valved glandular furrow at the base. 



English Botany, t. 1009. English Flora, vol. ii. p. 267 Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 197. Hirculus ranunculoides, Haworth. 

 Lindley, Synopsis, p 67. 



Root of black branched fibres. Stem solitary, erect, round, simple, 

 rarely branched, from three to six inches high, slender, filiform, leafy, 

 smooth below, downy above, procumbent at the base, and with a few 

 short spreading leafy branches, mostly clothed with soft rusty hairs. 

 Leaves alternate, obtusely lanceolate, entire, smooth, shining, and 

 beautifully marked with close elevated dotted lines, the margins some- 

 what rolled hack, pale beneath, and with slender branched veins, the 

 stem leaves sessile, those of the branches tapering into a footstalk of 

 variable length, and are either smooth or fringed with soft silky hairs. 

 Flowers solitary, terminal, rather large, of a bright yellow, spotted with 

 red in the lower half. Calyx inferior, of fire oblong obtuse at length 

 reflexed segments, scarcely united at the base, the margins mostly 

 copiously ciliated with soft hairs. Corolla of five obovate oblong petals, 

 two or three times longer than the calyx, numerously marked, with 

 slender much branched veins, united at the base in the short claw, and 

 marked on the inner side near the base with a two valved nectariferous 

 furrow. Stamens erect, shorter than the corolla, the filaments awl- 

 shaped, slender. Anthers of two valves, yellow. Styles very short. 

 Stiffmas spatulate, with inflexed margins, becoming plane. Capsule 

 oblong, two celled, crowned by the persistent somewhat divaricating 

 stigmas. Seeds numerous, oblong, shining, brown, rugose. 



Habitat. Wet moors ; rare. Knutsford, Cheshire. Dr. Kings- 

 stone. Cotherstone fell, Yorkshire. Mr. J. Sinks. Moors south of 

 Langton Lees Farmhouse, Berwickshire, plentiful. Mr. Thos. Brown. 

 In an extensive marsh three miles from Cloghjordau, County of 

 Tipperary, Ireland. Mr. J. Hodgens. 



Perennial ; flowering in August. 



This very beautiful and remarkable species of Saxifrage is very 

 different from all other of our species; it is nearer allied in habit 

 to the following than any other. " It is singular," Sir W. J. Hooker 

 observes, " that this plant, which I have seen abundantly in Iceland, 

 and which was found so plentifully by our arctic American voyagers 

 and travellers, is found no further north in Britain than Berwickshire." 



