166 SAXIFRAGACE^E. (SAXIFRAGE FAMILY.) 



and numerous flowers in compound cymes. The marginal flowers are usually 

 sterile and radiant, consisting merely of a membranaceous and colored flat and 

 dilated calyx, and showy. (Name from t>5a>p, water, and oyyos, a vase.) 



1. H. arbor^scens, L. (WILD HYDRANGEA'.) Glabrous or nearly so ; 

 leaves ovate, rarely heart-shaped, pointed, serrate, green both sides ; cymes flat. 

 Rocky banks, N. Jersey to Illinois, and southward. July. Flowers often 

 all fertile, rarely all radiant, like the Garden Hydrangea. 



4. PHILAD^LPHUS, L. MOCK GRANGE or SYRINGA. 



Calyx-tube top-shaped, coherent with the ovary ; the limb 4 - 5-parted, spread- 

 ing; persistent, valvate in the bud. Petals rounded or obovate, large, convolute 

 in the bud. Stamens 20 - 40. Styles 3-5, united below or nearly to the top. 

 Stigmas oblong or linear. Pod 3 - 5-celled, splitting at length into as many 

 pieces. Seeds very numerous, on thick placentae projecting from the axis, pen- 

 dulous, with a loose membranaceous coat prolonged at both ends. Shrubs, 

 with opposite often toothed leaves, no stipules, and solitary or cymose-clustered 

 showy white flowers. ( An ancient name, applied by Linnaaus to this genus for 

 no obvious reason.) 



1. P. inoddrus, L. Glabrous; leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, pointed, 

 entire or with some spreading teeth ; flowers single or few at the ends of the 

 diverging branches, pure white, scentless ; calyx-lobes acute, scarcely longer 

 than the tube. Mountains of Virginia and southward. 



Var. grandifl6rus. Somewhat pubescent ; flowers larger ; calyx-lobes 

 longer and taper-pointed. Virginia and southward, near the mountains. 

 May - July. A tall shrub, with long and recurved branches : often cultivated. 

 P. CORON\RIUS, L., the common MOCK ORANGE or SYRINGA of the gar- 

 dens, with cream-colored, odorous flowers, in full clusters, the crushed foliage 

 with the odor and taste of cucumbers, has sometimes escaped from grounds. 



5. PARNASSIA, Tourn. GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 



Sepals 5, imbricated in the bud, slightly united at the base, and sometimes 

 also with the base of the ovary, persistent. Petals 5, veiny, spreading, at length 

 deciduous, imbricated in the bud : a cluster of somewhat united gland-tipped 

 sterile filaments at the base of each. Proper stamens 5, alternate with the 

 petals : filaments persistent : anthers opening inwards. Ovary 1 -celled, with 

 4 projecting parietal placentae : stigmas 4, sessile, directly over the placentae. 

 Pod 4-valved, the valves bearing the placentas on their middle. Seeds very nu- 

 merous, anatropous, with a thick wing-like seed-coat and little if any albumen. 

 Embryo straight : cotyledons very short. Perennial smooth herbs, with the 

 leaves entire and chiefly radical, and the solitary flowers terminating the long 

 naked stems. Petals white, with greenish or yellowish veins. (Named from 

 Mount Parnassus : called Grass of Parnassus by Dioscorides. ) In former 

 edition placed between Droseraceae and Hypericacea?. 



1. P. parvifl6ra, DC. Petals sessile, little longer than the calyx; sterile 

 filaments about 5 in each set, slender ; leaves ovate or oblong, tapering at the base. 

 N. W. shore of L. Michigan (White-Fish Bay, Wisconsin, Henry Gillman), 



