3084 



SAUSSUREA 



SAXIFRAGA 



Leaves unarmed, alternate, entire, toothed, pinnati- 

 fid or pinnatisect: heads narrow or broad, sometimes 

 crowded on the dilated top of a simple st., peduncled, or 

 sessile, solitary, corymbose or panicled; fls. purple or 

 bluish, all perfect and similar, tube slender, limb narrow 

 5-cleft; involucre ovoid-oblong, globose or hemispheric, 

 bracts not spinescent: achenes glabrous, oblong, 4- 

 ribbed. About 200 species, temperate regions of Eu., 

 Asia, and N. Amer., mostly in the mountains. S. 

 gossipiphora, Don. Perennial, densely long white or 

 yellowish matted woolly: st. 6-12 in. high, hollow, 

 clavate. often 4 in. broad at top: Ivs. sessile, linear, 

 remotely toothed or runcinate-pinnatifid: heads very 

 many, cylindric; involucre-bracts linear-oblong, shi- 

 ning: achenes narrowly obovoid. Himalayas and China. 

 G.C. III. 51:85. S. leucoma, Diels. Plant 4-9 in. high: 

 Ivs. basal, narrowly pinnate, upper almost linear, the 

 blade being entirely sacrificed to the development of 

 the abundant cottony tomentum in which practically 

 the whole plant is smothered, the fl.-heads alone are 

 free of it and form a compact mass 2-3 in. diam. China. 

 G.C. III. 51: suppl. Feb. 10. S. Veitchiana, Drumm. 

 & Hutchins. Herb, 2-3 ft. high, with about 2-5 leafy 

 scapes from a tufted crown: fl.-sts. rigid, floccose 

 upward: Ivs., the lowest, 10x2 in., oblong-linear, green 

 above, loosely hairy below; the upper ovate-lanceolate; 

 bracts blush-pink- or purplish : heads nearly ovoid, over 



1 in.; florets deep purple. China. B.M. 8381. G.C. III. 

 50:85. F. TRACY HUBBARD. 



SAVORY. Sweet-herbs. 



Summer savory is Satureia hortensis of the Labiatse. 

 Cultivated in kitchen-gardens for its aromatic green 

 parts, which are gathered in midsummer for flavoring 

 meat, dressings, and other culinary preparations. The 

 slender, erect, branching, herbaceous stems, 10 to 12 

 inches tall, bear soft narrow green leaves and in sum- 

 mer clusters of pink, purplish or white flowers, which are 

 followed by brown ovoid seeds whose vitality lasts three 

 years. Propagation is by means of seed, which is sown 

 in drills 12 to 18 inches apart in April or May in light, 

 mellow, well-drained loam of moderate richness. When 



2 to 3 inches tall the plants are thinned to 5 or 6 inches 

 asunder, or for early crop they may be transplanted 

 from hotbeds sown in March. 



Winter savory (S. montana) is a hardy European 

 perennial species, having much the qualities of the 

 annual, but with woody, slender, very branching stems 

 12 to 16 inches tall, narrow, very acute leaves, white, 

 pink or lilac flowers and brown seeds, whose average 

 vitality is three years. It may be managed like thyme. 



M. G. KAINS. 



SAXEGOTILEA (in honor of Prince Albert of Saxe- 

 Coburg-Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria). Taxaceae. 

 An evergreen tree, native of Chile, similar in habit and 

 foliage to the yew: mono3cious, staminate fls. in cylin- 

 drical spikes clustered at the end of the branchlets; 

 pistillate fls. solitary at the end of branchlets: fr. a 

 small stalked irregularly subglobose cone with the 

 scales terminating in spiny flattened points; seeds ovate, 

 keeled, lustrous, brown. The plant is not hardy North 

 and it is doubtful whether it is in cult, in this country; 

 it is of slow growth and has no particular ornamental 

 merit, but botanically it is very interesting. Prop, is by 

 intro. seeds or by cuttings treated like those of taxus; 

 it also may be grafted on taxus or podocarpus. S. con- 

 spicua, Lindl. Tree, to 40 ft., with whorled drooping 

 branches: Ivs. linear or linear-lanceolate, spiny-pointed, 

 at the base abruptly contracted into a short decur- 

 rent stalk, dark green above, with 2 broad white lines 

 beneath, J^-l in. long: staminate spikes J^in.long: fr. 

 about Hin. across. J.H.S. 1851, pp. 260, 261. FS. 7, 

 p. 84. J.F. 2, pp. 69, 71. B.H. 6, p. 309 (pi. 75). I.H. 

 1, p. 16. G.C. III. 2:684; 5:782. 



S. grdcilis, Hort.=Podocarpus nubigena. 



ALFRED REHDER. 



SAXIFRAGA (Latin, rock and to break; said by some to 

 refer to the fact that many of the species grow in clefts 

 of rock, by others to the supposition that certain spe- 

 cies would cure stone in the bladder). Including Ber- 

 genia and Peltiphyllum, genera which are maintained as 

 distinct by Engler in his last treatment of the group. 

 Saxifragaceae. SAXIFRAGE. ROCKFOIL. Chiefly peren- 

 nial herbs, but a few species are annual and a few others 

 biennial, while some others are subshrubby; useful for 

 border planting, rockeries, and alpine gardens, and 

 much prized by fanciers, particularly abroad. 



Plants usually with more or less developed caudicles 

 which are either above or below ground: Ivs. commonly 

 clustered at the base and most often alternate on the 

 sts., very variable in shape: infl. paniculate, corymbose, 

 racemose or solitary: fls. as a rule not large, white, 

 yellow, red, pink, or purple; calyx either free from or 

 partly adnate to the base of the ovary, the tube short 

 or elongated, 5-cleft or 5-parted; petals usually equal 

 but occasionally decidedly unequal; stamens 10, rarely 

 5: fr. a 2-beaked, 2-celled caps, opening down or 

 between the beaks, or sometimes 2 almost separate fol- 

 licles; seeds numerous. About 400 species from a horti- 

 cultural viewpoint or approximately 250 botanically 

 speaking. Temperate (principally alpine) and northern 

 boreal regions, rare in Asia, very few in S. Amer. and 

 lacking in Austral., S. Afr., and the Pacific islands. In 

 preparing the following treatment of the genus and in 

 the arrangement of species, Engler, in Engler & Prantl's 

 Pflanzenfamilien, has been followed with the exception 

 above mentioned, while the specific delimitation is 

 largely based on Engler's Monographic der Gattung 

 Saxifraga, 1872, with cultural and other horticultural 

 information drawn from Irving & Malby's Saxifrages. 

 The : true saxifrages, so-called (excluding Bergenia and 

 Peltiphyllum), have been separated into several genera 

 at different times. The horticultural species men- 

 tioned in this treatment which are native of N. Amer. 

 have been divided among the following genera: 

 Saxifraga, Muscaria, Chondrqsea, Micranthes, Spatu- 

 laria, Leptasea, Heterisia, Peltiphyllum and Antiphylla. 

 See Small in N. Amer. Fl., vol. 22, pt. 2, 1907. 



Saxifrages are various in habit and stature, but they 

 are mostly low and spreading with rosulate or tufted 

 root-leaves. Most of the species in cultivation are 

 grown as rock-garden plants, although the large-leaved 

 members of the Megasea or Bergenia section are some- 

 times used as border plants. Owing to the small atten- 

 tion given to rock- and alpine-gardening in America, the 

 saxifrages are little known to our horticulturists. Most 

 of them are abundantly hardy as to frost, but are likely 

 to suffer from the dryness and heat of the American 

 summer. Partial shade in summer is essential for the 

 best results with most of the species. In winter the 

 stools should be given ample covering of leaves. The 

 most useful kinds for this country are the species of the 

 Megasea section. These are low plants of bold habit, 

 and are admirably adapted for rockwork and for spring 

 forcing under glass. Fig. 1819, Vol. Ill, shows a clump 

 of these plants in the lower left-hand corner. 



The alpine species are mostly dwarf plants with more 

 or less persistent foliage. Many of them, as S. oppositi- 

 folia, make dense moss-like mats; others, of which S. 

 Aizoon may be taken as a cultural type, produce a 

 dense rosette of leaves at the surface of the ground, 

 from which arises a flower-scape. Some of these forms 

 are very interesting because of the vari-colored or sil- 

 very effect produced by natural incrustations of lime on 

 the leaves, particularly on the leaf-edges. Give shade. 



Most saxifrages make stolons and offshoots freely, 

 and by these the plants are easily propagated; they are 

 also increased by division. Some make bulblets and 

 multiply in this manner. 



The number of species of saxifrage cultivated abroad 

 in rockeries and alpine-gardens is very large and there 

 are many fanciers who have made very large collec- 



