258 HARDY PERENNIALS AND 



the encrustments as a skin or in flakes, exposing to view a finely- 

 polished surface, and the general web-like appearance of the 

 tufts, are all peculiar to it. Of all the varieties of its section it 

 most resembles 8. carinthiaca and $. Australis; these forms, how- 

 ever, grow in compact rosette form, having leaves of more even 

 size and shape. Our subject is irregular in every way, many of 

 the leaves pushing out to double the length of others, and 

 becoming attenuated at their junction, or club-shaped. 



Its flowers are insignificant and similar to those of S. 

 Aizoon, but more dwarf in the stem. The leaves are %in. to Sin. 

 long, very narrow and tongue-shaped, sometimes obtuse and 

 club-shaped; stout, dark green, with a greyish crust-like 

 covering, and deeply dotted with bright spots. The leaves are 

 arranged in lax rosettes and are reflexed or pressed flat to the 

 earth nearly all their length. The habit is very pretty in esta- 

 blished and fair-sized specimens, which accommodate themselves 

 to the form of surface, and the longer or erratic leaves become so 

 interlaced with the other parts as to appear woven ; this habit 

 and the bright bead-like dots go to make the plant more than 

 ordinarily attractive. It should be in every collection of choice 

 Saxifrages; it is charming as a pot specimen, plunged and 

 grown out of doors the year round. 



On rockwork it should have a place, too, among the gems, being 

 a neat and slow grower; its position should be near dark- 

 coloured stones, where it will prove most telling. In damp 

 weather its silvery parts are obliterated, but a breeze of half-an- 

 hour or a beam of sunshine soon brings it into full beauty again. 

 Gritty peat and a little loam suits it well ; I have it doing nicely 

 in ordinary garden soil ; but if the more carefully prepared 

 composts are employed, the results well repay the pains so 

 taken. Its propagation is easily carried out by root divisions ; 

 early spring is a good time for the operation. 



Flowering period, May and June. 



Saxifraga Pectinata. 



Nat. Ord. SAXIFRAGACE.E. 



THIS belongs to the encrusted section, being most distinctly 

 toothed ; from this it takes its name ; the teeth are large for such 

 small leaves. Specimens of this Saxifrage, though small, are 

 exceedingly pretty. Excepting when there is fog or rain, it is 

 nearly white ; and the rosettes, of various sizes, from in. to lin. 

 across, are not only neat in themselves, but are densely and 

 pleasingly arranged in a hard flat mass. It is never more 

 beautiful, not even in May and June, when it flowers, than in 

 November, when the growth is both complete and ripened, and 

 the scaly substance which is spread over the leaves and the 

 silvery teeth combine to render it attractive. 



