154 SAXIFRAGACE^E. (SAXIFRAGE FAMILY.) 



5. ASTILBE, Hamilton. 



Flowers polygamo-dioecious. Calyx campanulate, 5-parted, nearly free from 

 the ovary. Petals 5, spatulate, withering-persistent. Stamens 10, exscrted. 

 Styles 2. Capsule 2-celled, few-seeded. Seed-coat loose and thin. Perennial 

 herbs, with ternately compound leaves, and small yellowish-white flowers, in 

 panicled racemes. 



1. A. decandra, Don. Banks of streams among the mountains of 

 Georgia and North Carolina. June -August. Stem 3 -5 high. Leaves 

 twice or thrice ternately compound ; the leaflets mostly cordate-ovate, sharply 

 lobed and toothed. Stigmas of the sterile flowers and the stamens and petals of 

 the fertile ones smaller or rudimentary. 



6. TIARELLA, L. FALSE MITRE-WORT. 



Calyx campanulate, nearly free from the ovary, 5-parted. Petals 5, entire. 

 Stamens 10. Styles 2. Capsule membranaceous, 2-valved, the valves very un- 

 equal, 1 -celled, few-seeded. Seeds globular, smooth. Perennial herbs, with 

 scape-like stems, chiefly radical and petioled leaves, and small racemose flowers. 



1. T. COrdifolia, L. Leaves round-cordate, crenately or acutely lobed 

 and toothed, hairy above, pubescent beneath, on long hairy petioles ; scape (6'- 

 12' high) naked, or bearing 1-2 alternate leaves above the middle; racemes 

 simple or branched, many-flowered ; petals oblong, white or purplish. Eocky 

 woods and banks, Mississippi, and northward along the mountains. April 

 and May. 



7. MITELLA, Tourn. MITRE-WORT. 



Calyx coherent with the base of the ovary, 5-cleft. Petals 5, pinnatifid. Sta- 

 mens 10. Styles 2. Capsule 2-beaked, 1 -celled, 2-valved at the apex, many- 

 seeded. Seeds smooth, borne on two parietal placentae. Perennial herbs, with 

 broadly cordate and lobed leaves, and small flowers in a terminal raceme. 



1. M. diphylla, L. ' Hairy ; radical leaves cordate, acute, coarsely ser- 

 rate and slightly 3-lobed, on long petioles ; stem-leaves 2, opposite, sessile ; 

 raceme slender, loosely many-flowered. Shady woods, on the mountains of 

 North Carolina, and northward. May. Stem 6' - 12' high. Flowers white. 



8. CHBYSOSPLENIUM, Tourn. GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE. 



Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, 4 - 5-lobed ; the lobes obtuse and yellow 

 within. Petals none. Stamens 8-10, very short, inserted on ,a conspicuous 

 disk. Styles 2. Capsule very short, 2-lobed, 1 -celled, with 2 parietal placentae, 

 2-valved at the apex, many-seeded. Smooth and succulent herbs, with round- 

 ish leaves, and axillary flowers. 



1. C. Americanum, Schweinitz. Stems prostrate, forking; leaves mostly 

 opposite, roundish, slightly lobed ; flowers solitary, greenish. Cold and shady 



