BVRNET-SAXIFRAnE. 125 



striae. I'lie stem is erect, roiunL striated, pubescent when the 

 plant is in flower, afterwards smooth, jointed ; a little branched to- 

 wards the top, and rising from a foot to eighteen inches in height. 

 The leaves are variously shaped ; those of the root are pinnate, 

 composed of from five to seven rounded and more or less 

 toothed leaflets, the terminal one often three-lobed ; they soon 

 wither, and are rarely found after fructification has commenced : 

 the cauline leaves are bipinnate, with linear acute segments. 

 The flowers are disposed in terminal umbels, flat, drooping be- 

 fore flowering, and consist of several radii, without involucre 

 either general or partial. The calyx forms merely an obso- 

 lete margin. The corolla is white, composed of five inversely 

 heart-shaped or somewhat ovate petals, inflexed at the point. 

 The five filaments are white, spreading, filiform, and furnished 

 with roundish anthers. The germen is ovate-oblong, striated, 

 supporting two short styles terminated by simple, globose 

 stigmas. The fruit is contracted at the sides, ovate, striated, 

 and crowned with the swollen base of the reflexed styles ; the 

 carpels* are marked with fine, slender, equal ridges, of which 

 the lateral ones are marginal. The seeds are gibbous, and 

 nearly flat in front. Plate 9, fig. S, («) floret magnified ; (b) 

 the fruit. 



This plant is a native of Great Britain, growing abundantly 

 in dry, gravelly, or chalky pastures. It is found throughout 

 the greater part of Europe, from the Mediterranean as far as 

 Lapland, in which country it occurs, though rather sparingly. 

 It flowers in July and August. 



The generic name, Linnseus informs us, is altered from bJ- 

 pennula, tivke-pinnated. The great variety in the form of the 

 leaves occasions a resemblance between them and those of many 

 other plants ; hence the specific name Saxifraga, and the com- 

 mon name Burnet-Saxifrage, from their similarity to those of 

 the ComiTion Burnet (Sanguisorba oflficinalis). 



There is another British species, the great Burnet-Saxifrao-e, 

 {P'lmpinella magna,) which grows in woods and shady places, 

 and is like the foregoing in habit, but it is larger in all its parts, 

 and the upper leaves are much broader and less divided. The 

 Anise, {Pbnpinella Anismn,) well known for its aromatic and 



* Denominated mericarps by De Candolle. 



