334 THE ALPINE FLORA 



with the higher climbing varieties, J^udolphiana and 

 biflora, in whose case the proportion of loamy material 

 may with advantage be much decreased. 



Saxifrages have no medicinal properties, though some 

 have wished to see in their reputed character of "stone- 

 breakers" an allusion to the disease of calculus, which 

 was said to be able to be healed by them. 



Glorious beyond all praise is the Queen of Saxifrages, 

 the Pyrenean S. longifolia, whose enormous rosettes of 

 silver-grey far exceed in beauty those of S. cotelydon, 

 and whose panicled flowers are of marvellous beauty. 

 Yet it succeeds with great ease in cracks of walls or 

 chinks of limestone rocks. 



Parnassia 



P. palustris* (PI. XLV). A familiar herb found in 

 moist places over all Swiss hills, even those of the great 

 plateau. The ovate-cordate leaves and the large, solitary 

 flowers, white with greenish veins, give one of the 

 prettiest touches in the landscape which it enlivens all the 

 summer through and often till late in the autumn. 

 Culture easy, provided it is given a cool, moist 

 position. 



