254 HARDY PERENNIALS AND 



offets, but these are rarely produced in numbers, as is common 

 with most of the incrusted Saxifrages. I may say that I have 

 only met with one specimen which has thus proved useful in any 

 degree worth notice, and it produced nearly a score of off-sets 

 during one season ; it ripens much seed, which may, or may not 

 .come true. 



Flowering period, June and July. 



Saxifraga Mutata. 

 Nat. Ord. SAXIFRAGACEJE. 



A SOMEWHAT rare alpine species, evergreen, hardy, very dis- 

 tinct and beautiful. It is one of the rosette forms, after the 

 style of S.pyramidalis, but there are several important variations 

 about the plant, other than in the flowers, which are totally 

 different. There are many peculiarities about this species, but 

 they would hardly require to be noticed here were not the plant 

 -otherwise of great merit. When in bloom it is highly decorative, 

 and the flowers in a cut state are unique. 



The flower stem is 12in. to 18in. high, furnished with supple- 

 mentary ones all its length ; the lower ones are 8m. long, and 

 spreading ; they become shorter as they near the top, the whole 

 forming a fine symmetrical panicle. The flowers are over ^in. 

 Across, petals awl-shaped, and, when first open, are nearly red; 

 they change to dark orange and again to pale yellow ; the calyx 

 is very large, the sepals four times as broad as the petals and 

 bluntly pointed; the stamens and anthers are coloured, and 

 change like the petals ; the ovary, which is very conspicuous, is 

 & fine purple, but later, it, too, changes to a pink colour ; the 

 .outer parts of the calyx and all the shorter flower- stalks, which 

 are clustered at the ends of the supplementary stems, are 

 greenish-yellow, and this feature of the plant adds much to its 

 beauty. Calyx, stems, and stem-leaves are densely furnished 

 with stiff gland-tipped hairs, rendering them clammy to the 

 touch. The leaves of the rosettes are tongue-shaped, rough at 

 the edges, fleshy, covered with glandular hairs, of a shining 

 green colour, and slightly reflexed. The changeable nature of 

 the flowers doubtless gives rise to the specific name. A well- 

 flowered specimen is very effective on rockwork, but the panicles 

 have a fault of heading over, from their weight, and also 

 because, unlike S. longifolia and S. cotyledon, which have large 

 and firm rosettes close to the ground to stay them, this species 

 has a somewhat " leggy " rosette or a foot stalk, which is more 

 or less furnished with browned and very persistent foliage. 

 The flowers last a long time in good form, and, if grown clean, 

 their yellow nearly golden stalks render them very useful in 

 ;a cut state. 



