SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. Saxifragaceae. 



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 



tall> with a hairy stem bearin g a gleeful 

 wand of small flowers, springing from a 

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



Purplish thin in texture, but roughish and sparsely 



W^h^Ore Cal haiiy> The flowers are about a third of 

 * 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 

 and 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, witfr 1 

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

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

 capsule. 



These feathery sprays are so airy and 

 Heuchtra delicate that they might almost be mada 



micrdniha of mingled mist and moonshine, blown 



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



Cai mi Ore Wash ar6 nOt S ira & le as the ^ look ' for th 

 ' clusters of tiny pink and white flower 



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

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

 of roundish leaves, prettily lobed and scalloped, brigh 

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

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

 and lovely feathery spires are conspicuous, decorative an 

 quite common, among mossy rocks in dark, rich mountail 

 woods, up to six thousand feet. 

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