THE SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. 527 



loway Nursery. In speaking of these two last-named plants, 

 Mr Thomas Moore observes : " These two plants have the 

 same parents namely, S. purpurea and S. flava but they 

 are so different in aspect, that we have little doubt the crosses 

 were made the reverse way. Mr Stevens's plant more nearly 

 resembles S. purpurea, though it has an erect habit, since it 

 combines the bulging form and purple veining and coloration 

 of that species. Mr Williams's plant, on the other hand, has 

 a greater resemblance to S. flava, being larger and erect, 

 less coloured, with a large lid, but having the pitcher more 

 broadly winged, and in this respect approaching its other par- 

 ent. These hybrids are plants of very great horticultural 

 interest." 



THE SAXIFRAGE FAMILY (Saxifragacea). 



A small family of herbaceous plants, principally natives of 

 Europe, the majority being found in cool mountainous districts, 

 where they grow in dense patches,, or occasionally solitary. 

 They are represented in our gardens by numerous forms of 

 Saxifraga. Propagation is easily effected in the case of the 

 gregarious species 

 by careful division, 

 while nearly all the 

 kinds seed freely, 

 and the seeds ger- 

 minate readily sown 

 in pans of sandy 

 earth in a cold 

 frame, or where 

 they are to remain 



in Sheltered niches Entire tuft of Cephalotnsfollicularis 



Of rockwork Or On (smaller than nature). 



old retaining walls. 



It is singular to observe that the stamens of some of the Saxifrages 

 vary in length, and also in the period of their full development, 

 as in Tropceolum, and each stamen bends over in the direction 

 of the stigmas when the pollen is ripe, as if to favour self-fer- 

 tilisation; but of this we need better proof. Some of the 

 species as S. megacea, S. nepalensis, S. pyramidalis, and others 

 are of noble habit, bearing a showy spire-like inflorescence 

 two or three feet in height. Nothing appears to have been 

 done in the way of hybridising species of this genus; so 

 that here is an untrodden path for some intelligent adventurer. 



