SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. Saxifragaccae. 



three-quarters of an inch across, with white petals, prettily 

 slashed. This is sometimes called Star of Bethlehem, but 

 that name belongs to an Ornithogalum, grown in gardens. 

 The only kind, a perennial, over a foot 

 Youth-on-age tall with hai stem bearing a grace ful 

 Leptaxis , . . 6 . 



Menziesii. wand or small nowers, springing irom a 



(Tolmieo) cluster of root-leaves, bright green and 



Purplish thin in texture, but roughish and sparsely 



Summer hairy. The flowers are about a third of 



Wash., Oreg., Cal. /* . . 



an inch long, the calyx, which is the con- 

 spicuous part, dark-purple or pinkish-red and slightly 

 irregular, with three large and two small sepals, and the 

 petals of the same color, but so narrow that they look like 

 long curling filaments. The three stamens are opposite the 

 three upper sepals, the ovary is superior and the capsule 

 has two long beaks. Young plants often spring from the 

 base of the leaf, where it joins the leaf-stalk, and this habit 

 gives the common name. This grows in mountain woods 

 ana is attractive, for though the flowers are dull in color 

 they are unusual in form and the leaves are pretty. 



There are a good many kinds of Heuchera, North 

 American, difficult to distinguish; perennials, with stout 

 rootstocks; leaves mostly from the root; flowers small, in 

 clusters; calyx- tube bell-shaped, with five lobes; petals 

 small, sometimes lacking, on the throat of the calyx, with 

 claws; stamens five, inserted with the petals; ovary partly 

 inferior, with two slender styles, becoming two beaks on the 

 capsule. 



Aj um t These feathery sprays are so airy and 



Heuchera delicate that they might almost be made 



micrdntha of mingled mist and moonshine, blown 



Pink and white from the waterfalls they love to haunt, but 

 Summer are nQ ^. SQ f ra g{i e as they i oo k, for the 



' clusters of tiny pink and white flowers 

 last a long time in water. The stem is very slender, rather 

 hairy, from one to three feet tall, springing from a cluster 

 of roundish leaves, prettily lobed and scalloped, bright 

 green, with some white hairs on the backs and on the long 

 leaf-stems, often with red veins. The handsome leaves 

 and lovely feathery spires are conspicuous, decorative and 

 quite common, among mossy rocks in dark, rich mountain 

 woods, up to six thousand feet. 



200 



