SAXIFRAGES 393 



XXX. SAXIFRAGACE^:. Saxifrage Family. 

 Herbs or shrubs of various habit, with opposite or alternate leaves 

 that usually do not have stipules: flowers with ovary mostly inferior, 

 5-mcrous, the stamens usually 10 or less (in a few eases as many as 

 40); pistils 10 or less, either separate or the carpels united, tin- fruit 

 a follicle, capsule or berry. A polymorphous family comprising some 

 600 species in about 75 genera. Comprises saxifrage, mitre-wort, 

 hydrangea, mock orange, currant and gooseberry. 



A. Herbs. 



b. Stamens twice as many as petals, 

 c. Petals entire: stamens usually 10. 



d. Flowers in cymes or panicles (rarely solitary): 



capsule 2-beaked: ovary usually 2-celled 1. Saxifraga 



DD. Flowers in racemes: ovary 1-celled: capsule 



2-beaked. with 1 beak the longer and larger. . . .2. Tiarella 



cc. Petals with edges fringed or cleft 3. Mitella 



bb. Stamens (fertile) 5, or equal in number to the petals: 



clusters of sterile stamens opposite each petal 4. Parnassia 



aa. Shrubs. 



B. Leaves opposite. 

 c. Stamens 8 or 10. 



d. Flowers all alike: sepals 5 5. Deutzia 



dd. Flowers usually of 2 kinds: the marginal ones 



enlarged and neutral, apctalous 6. Hydrangea 



cc. Stamens many: petals 4 or 6, large, white 7. Philadelphia 



bb. Leaves alternate 8. Ribcs 



1. SAXIFRAGA. Saxifrage. 



Herbs, with root-leaves in rosette: flowers perfect, small, whitish, in 

 cymes or panicles, on leafy stems or leafless scapes; sepals 5, more or less 

 united; petals 5, entire inserted on calyx-tube; stamens mostly 10; styles 

 2 and capsule 2-beaked, or of nearly separate divergent pods. 



S. virginiensis, Michx. Little perennial herb with spatulate or obovate, 

 petioled, crenate, thick leaves: scape 3-12 in., erect, viscid-pubescent, 

 bearing many small, white flowers in a loose cyme, the petals exceeding the 

 calyx. In early spring, on moist banks and rocks. 



2. TIARELLA. False Mitrewort. 



Perennials, with small white flowers in racemes: calyx white, eampan- 

 ulate, 5-lobed; petals 5, entire on claws; stamens 10, with long filaments 

 from the calyx-tube; ovary 1-celled, nearly superior; styles 2, long and 

 slender: capsule with two very unequal beaks. 



T. cordifolia, Linn. Scape slender, pubescent, leafless or with 1 or 2 

 leaves: stoloniferous from rootstocks: leaves cordate, lobed or toothed, 

 petioled, slightly hairy or downy beneath: flowers white, in short raceme. 

 Spring. Handsome. 



