THE SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. 115 



are so beautifully marked by diverging sunken veins 

 of a greenish colour, that a fanciful person might 

 liken them to rivulets of chrysoprase flowing over a bed 

 of snow. The glandular apparatus I have spoken of, 

 consists of five fleshy scales, alternating with the sta- 

 mens, and divided at their edge into numerous rays, 

 each tipped with one beautiful pellucid greenish gland ; 

 so that the whole interior of the flower, when inspected 

 from above, seems to bristle with a guard of fairy 

 lances, tipped with sparkling jewels. I know of no 

 natural object more exquisitely beautiful than this little 

 flower, which you may cultivate for a few months by 

 keeping its roots in wet bog-moss, and covering it with 

 a bell-glass fully exposed to the light. 



If you consider, as I hope you do, the resemblances 

 of the tribes that are successively brought to your no- 

 tice, with those which have been previously illustrated, 

 you will have already noticed the near resemblance 

 that exists between the Saxifrage and Rose Tribes. 

 Not, indeed, between the Rose and the little plant we 

 have just been looking at, but between it and the many 

 herbaceous species that belong to the same group with 

 the Rose. One of our usual contrasts will make this 

 quite clear, and we may as well include in the compa- 

 rison the Houseleek Tribe, which participates in the 

 relationship of the Saxifrages. 



I will first contrast their resemblances, and then 

 their differences, in the same table, so that at one view 

 you may perceive why they are placed near each other 

 in the system, and why they are separated. 



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