192 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



THE WHITE MEADOW SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga granulata, L.) 

 AND THE LONDON PRIDE (Saxifraga umbrosa, L.). 



In damp grassy land and on banks in May and June the 

 White Meadow Saxifrage may be met with. It is not quite so 

 common as most of the plants described here, but is of interest 

 in a number of ways, and should be carefully studied if it is 

 found. Specimens should be dug up with care, since the parts 

 in the soil will be found as interesting as those above it. 



The short underground stem bears some brown roots, and has 

 clustered around it a number of pink spherical bodies, to the 

 study of which we shall return. If the plant is examined early 

 in the season a number of leaves will be found springing close 

 beside one another and forming a rosette at the base of the shoot, 

 which continues its growth and bears the flowers. These leaves 

 have a well-marked sheathing base, which narrows gradually 

 into the leaf -stalk. This again widens out into the kidney- 

 shaped leaf-blade ; the margin of the blade is cut into rounded 

 lobes. The surface of the leaf is hairy both above and below, 

 while the margin is fringed with a row of longer hairs. Short 

 hairs are also found on the leaf-stalk. 



The cylindrical stem above the rosette of leaves bears a few 

 leaves separated by long internodes. The leaves become suc- 

 cessively simpler in form, and have shorter stalks, till we come 

 to the reduced leaves or bracts on the inflorescence. The sur- 

 face of the stem is sticky, owing to the secretion formed in the 

 small globular heads of the numerous short hairs covering it. 

 A little careful observation will show that the main stem of 

 the inflorescence ends in the flower which is the first to open. 

 From the axils of the two highest bracts branches arise that 

 also end in flowers, and each branch in turn bears another flower 

 in the axil of its uppermost bract. 



The flowers themselves are fairly large, and when fully open 

 are conspicuous. The flower-stalk widens into a green hemi- 

 spherical region, which will be found to enclose the base of the 

 ovary. On the margin of this dilated portion the five sepals are 

 situated. These are rather large, and green ; they are covered on 

 the outer surface with glandular hairs similar to those borne on 



