22C 



THE SAXIFRAGA FAMILY. 



persistent lobes. Corolla : with five, elliptical, clawed petals. Sterile stamens ; 

 fifteen, grouped in threes; fertile ones, five. Leaves: from the base; with long 

 petioles; reniform; entire; thin; palmately-veiiied; bright green above; lighter 

 below; glabrous. 



So elfin and delicate is the personality of this lovely flower that late in the 

 season it carries us backward and we feel as though again intruding into 

 the presence of some hesitating, early spring bloomer. Its chosen haunts 

 are quiet, shady ones, by little brooklets or swamps and far from the dust 

 and grime of the highways. Here it freely spreads its fair petals, deli- 

 cately veined as they are with pale green, and quaintly undulated on the 

 edges. It was Discorides who named the plant and while he may have 

 associated it with the Greek mount, it could hardly have ever suggested to 

 him a grass. 



P. Caroliniana, Carolina grass-of-Parnassus, found in wet meadows and 

 bordering swamps in the mountains of North Carolina and 

 northward, bears not quite as beautiful a flower as 

 described relative, from which it is easily recognised by 

 petals being destitute of claws. The sterile stamens 

 are no longer than the fertile ones, a character ex- 

 actly reversed in Parnassia grandifolia, a species 

 ranging from the Gulf to Virginia and characterised 

 by the long, slender staminodia. 



Parfiassia asari/olia. 



