BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 55 



Long before we reached the summit we again met with the 

 new Saxifraga, 1 which we had previously gathered on the 

 mountains near Jefferson ; but we now found it in great 

 abundance, both in flower and with mature fruit. It grew in 

 the greatest profusion on the dripping face of a rocky preci- 

 pice near our encampment for the night, on the northwestern 

 side of the mountain, five or six hundred feet beneath the 

 highest summit. The vegetation here is so backward that 

 the Saxifraga leucanthemifolia growing on the brow of this 

 precipice was not yet in blossom, and the Saxifraga erosa, 

 Pursh, in the wet soil at its base was scarcely out of flower, 

 while at the foot of the mountain it had long since shed its 

 seeds. We were therefore enabled to satisfy ourselves that 

 S. erosa belongs to the section Hydatica, and that the S. 

 Wolleana, Torr. & Gray, from a mountain near Bethlehem 

 in Pennsylvania, is only a variety of this species. Pursh 

 gathered his plant in Virginia, " out of a run near the road 

 from the Sweet Springs to the Union Springs, five miles from 

 the former." But if this species be the Robertsonia rnicran- 

 thifolia of Haworth's Succulent Plants, as is most probable, 

 and consequently the Aulaxis micranthifolia of this author's 



1 Saxifraga Careyana (spec, nov.): foliis radiealibus longe petiolatis 

 glabris (tenuibus) ovato-rotundis grosse crenato-dentatis basi truncatis vel 

 subcordatis, scapo graeili nudo apice paniculato-cymoso, floribus effusis, 

 pedicillis filiformibus, petalis lanceolato-oblongis sessilibus sepala recurva 

 plus duplo superantibus, carpellis discretis turgidis demum divaricatis 

 calyce liberis. Variat 1, scapo petiolisque glabriusculis : 2, scapo pedi- 

 cillis nee non pagina foliorum pilis viscosis pubescentibus : 3, scapo foliis 

 aut bracteis foliaceis 1-2 instructo : 4, foliis ovalibus oblongisve, nunc 

 argute dentatis, in petiolum plus minus attenuatis. 



Crescit in rupibus humidis opacis altissimorum montium comitatus 

 Ashe, prsesertim ad montem Grandfather dictum, alt. 3500-5000 pedes: 

 Junio floret. Herba spithamsea, rarius pedalis. Flores parvi. Petala 

 consimilia, sessilia, subtriplinervia, alba, immaculata. Filamenta subu- 

 lato-filiformis. Carpella ovoidea, stylis brevibus apiculata, (stigmatibus 

 subincrassatis,) basi vix aut ne vix coalita ad maturitatem per totam 

 suturam ventralem dehiscentia, ut in pleris Saxifragis plus minus apocar- 

 peis. Semina ovalia, striis elevatis denticulatis (per lentem augentem) 

 longitudinaliter notata. Species distinctissima, habitu ad sect. Hydaticam, 

 sed characteribus ad Micrantheum accedens. 



