1 82 Saxifrages Francoa. 



4. FRANCOA. 



Leaves crowded, lyrate-pinnatifid or pinnate, glandular- 

 toothed. Flowers in erect elongated racemes, petals and sepals 

 equal. Tetilla, an allied genus, has very unequal petals and 

 sepals. There are three or four species or varieties of similar 

 habit and appearance. 



1. F. sonchifolia. This species grows about 2 or 3 feet high, 

 unbranched, with purple flowers appearing in Summer. 



TRIBE III. HYDRANGEA. 



Shrubs with opposite simple exstipulate leaves. Petals 

 usually valvate, and stamens epigynous. Ovary 3- to 5-celled. 



5. HYDRANGEA. 



Erect or climbing shrubs. Leaves persistent or deciduous, 

 entire, toothed or lobed. Flowers in large terminal corymbs 

 or panicles, fertile small, sterile large and apetalous. Petals 

 4 or 5, valvate. Styles 4 or 5, free, or connate at the base. 

 Fruit small, capsular ; seeds numerous, minute. Between twenty 

 and thirty species, chiefly Asiatic, a few from North America. 

 The name is a compound of uSo>/?, water, and dyysiov, a vase, 

 from the cup-shaped fruit. 



1. JET. Hortensia (fig. 97). The form originally introduced 

 under this name is the most familiar in cultivation, and one of 

 the most desirable of dwarf flowering shrubs, especially in the 

 south, in the vicinity of the sea. In some varieties nearly or 

 quite all the flowers are sterile, the lobes of the calyx being 

 greatly expanded, and pink, white or blue, according to the 

 nature of the soil ; and in others only the outer flowers are 

 sterile. The same curious transformation may be seen in the 

 wild and cultivated varieties of the Guelder Eose. A native 

 of Japan, introduced in 1790. The folbwing forms, also 

 Japanese, are with the foregoing all considered as varieties of 

 one species ; but, as varieties, many of them are very distinct 

 and beautiful. H. Japonica roseo-dlba has the outer flowers 

 only radiate, having either white or rosy toothed petals ; 

 H. Jap. ccerulescens has bright blue ray-flowers. H. Otdksa, 

 very near the common Hortensia, with nearly all the blue 

 flowers sterile, and in very large panicles ; H. stellata prolifera 



