142 White to Green and Brown Flowers 



spring; they are hairy, long-shaped, and sharply toothed. 

 You can best distinguish the Tall Saxifrage from Lyall's 

 species by the leaves, which in the former are spatulate and 

 long-shaped and in the latter rounded. The Tall Saxifrage 

 also generally has small bulblets growing below the flowers. 



Saxifraga nivalis, or Alpine Saxifrage, is a plant which 

 grows at extremely high altitudes, as well as on the lower 

 mountain slopes. It, too, has a cluster of leaves at the base, 

 rounded and toothed at the top and narrowing down sharply 

 towards the root. The flowers grow in handsome compact 

 heads, and the stalks, usually quite bare of leaves, are red- 

 dish and not straight. The seed-pods are purple-red and 

 spreading. 



Saxifraga Mertensiana, or Spotted Saxifrage, has a bulb- 

 like rootstock, and propagates by bulblets in the axils of 

 the leaves, which latter are rounded, heart-shaped at the 

 base, lobed and toothed, being very large and broad. The 

 white petals of the flowers have two yellow spots near the 

 base and the capsule is oval and inflated. 



Sa.rifraga ccsiii'alis, or Purple-bracted Saxifrage, has 

 kidney-shaped leaves which are deeply cordate at the base 

 and coarsely toothed. The white flowers grow in a loose 

 open panicle, and the bracts on the stalks are quite purplish. 



Saxifraga cccspiiosa, or Tufted Saxifrage, has slender 

 running stems and short branchlets. It forms dense tufts 

 as large as eighteen inches in diameter on the ground. The 

 leaves are pale yellowish-green, thin, fan-shaped and deeply 

 three-to-five cleft. The white flowers are large in compari- 

 son with the size of the plant and the narrow entire bracts 

 and three-lobed leaves grow on the flowering stalks. 



Saxifraga adscendens, or Wedge-leaved Saxifrage, has 

 wedge-shaped three-toothed leaves growing in basal rosettes, 



