ALUM-ROOT (Heiichera micrantha, Dougl.). Flowers white, 

 calyx bell-shaped, petals five, growing in a loose, feathery, 

 narrow panicle \ foot to 1| feet long, topping a slender, naked 

 stem a foot or more tall. Leaves long-petioled, hairy, heart- 

 shaped at base, 1 to 4 inches long, more or less mottled and 

 red-veined, all basal. Perennial, from a stout rootstock, 

 blooming in summer on shady slopes and in the crevices of 

 rock walls, in the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada (Yose- 

 mite region), from Central California to British Columbia. 



The genus Heuchera, of which there are some six or eight 

 species more or less common in the West, was given this name 

 by Linnaeus in honor of an old-time German botanist Heucher. 

 The species here described is probably the commonest on the 

 Pacific Coast and is fairly representative of the generic appear- 

 ance, there being a strong family resemblance among the dif- 

 ferent species. The root of the Heucheras has had some vogue 

 in medicine, because of its pronounced astringency, whence 

 the common name Alum-root, applied indiscriminately to them 

 all. The plants take quite good-naturedly to domestication 

 and gardeners find them desirable, particularly for rockeries 

 and borders. The foliage is disposed to redden with age and 

 is then exceedingly ornamental. 

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