200 SAXIFRAGACE^. Mitella. 



2 or 3 inches in diameter: scape leafless, a span high, 10- 20-tiowerecl : flowers 

 greenish : petals pectinately once or even twice pinnately parted : stamens 5, oppo- 

 site the calyx-lobes. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 533. 



Woods of the Sierra Nevada at 6,000 to 11,000 feet, Mariposa Co. (Breiver, &c.) to Sierra Co., 

 Torrey, Lemmon. Capillary multifid petals 2 lines long, much exceeding the calyx. 



2. M. trifida, Graham. Leaves all from the rootstock, round-reniform or cor- 

 date, crenately toothed and sometimes incised or lobed, thinnish, sparsely hairy, 1 

 to 3 inches in diameter : scape filiform, a span to a foot high : flowers whitish, 

 numerous and rather scattered in tlie commonly one-sided slender spike or spike- 

 like raceme ; the pedicels mostly very short : petals 3 - 5-parted, small : stamens 5, 

 opposite the calyx-lobes. — Hook. Fl. i. 241, t. 82. 



Mountain woods of Mendocino Co. (Bolander), thence north to British Columbia and in the 

 Kocky Mountains. 



M. PENTANDRA, Hook. 1. c. & Bot. Mag. t. 2933, of the Rocky Mountains, is another species 

 with naked scape and 5 stamens, but the latter opposite the petals. 



M. CAULESCENS Nutt., has one or more alternate petioled leaves on the flowering stem or 

 scape, similar to those of the rootstock and runners, a loose raceme, and the 5 stamens alternate 

 with the pinnatifid petals. It extends from British Columbia to Oregon, and may probably 

 occur on the northern borders of the State. 



M. NUDA and M. piphylla are the two Linnsean and 10-androus species. The former extends 

 westward to British Columlna, and recurs in N. Siberia : tlie latter is only an Atlantic species. 



8. HEUCHERA, Linn. Alum-eoot. 

 Calyx campanulate, 5-lobed ; the lobes imbricated in the bud, obtuse, sometimes 

 rather unequal ; the tube coherent with the lower half of the ovary. Petals 5, un- 

 guiculate, small and entire, sometimes minute or wanting or early deciduous, inserted 

 on the throat of the calyx. Stamens 5 : filaments either slender and long, or some- 

 times rather shorter than the calyx : anthers 2-celled. Ovary and capsule 1 -celled, 

 with 2 parietal placentae, more or less 2-beaked ; the beaks tapering into either 

 filiform and elongated or subulate and shorter styles ; dehiscent between the beaks. 

 Seeds numerous, oval or globular, with a close crustaceous black coat, minutely 

 muricate-roughened. — Herbs (all N. American) ; with stout rootstocks, sending up 

 slender-petioled rounded and mostly cordate many-toothed and somewhat lobed 

 leaves, and scapes or alternately 1 - 3-leaved flowering stems, bearing numerous 

 small and mostly dull-colored flowers ; the cymose clusters either open in a loose 

 ample panicle, or sometimes condensed into a spike-like thyrsus. Scarious stipules 

 adnate or partly distinct. 



There are about five species in the Atlantic States, as many more peculiar to the Eocky Moun- 

 tain region, and the following in California, Oregon, &c. A sterile plant collected on Guadalupe 

 Island by Dr. Palmer may belong to a peculiar Lower Californian species. 



§ 1. Flowers in an open or sometimes more condensed and thyrsoid imnide : filaments 

 more or less filiform, mostly exserted. 



% Calyx obloncf-campamdate, commonly tinged ivith purple or rose-color. 



1. H. rubescens, Torr. Scape a span to a foot high, from stout creeping root- 

 stocks, nearly glaljrous : leaves thickish, rounded, crenately lobed and toothed, an 

 inch or less in diameter : flowers loosely panicled : calyx 2 lines long, more or less 

 acute at base : filiform filaments and styles and very slender white or flesh-colored 

 petals conspicuously exserted. — Stansb. Rep. 388, t. 5 ; Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 63 ; 

 Watson, Bot. King Exp. 96. 



Common in the Sierra Nevada, on rocks, at 5,000 to 11,000 feet, extending to Utah and New 

 Mexico. 



