78 ENGLISH BOTANYi 



the Forth and Clyde, and not extending North of Aberdeen 

 and Moray. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring and 

 early Summer. 



Stem erect, 6 to 18 inches high, branched in luxuriant speci- 

 mens ; bulbs at the base much larger and more numerous than in 

 the two preceding species, being as large as peppercorns. Petioles 

 of the root-leaves 1£ to 3 inches long ; lamina | to If inch across ; 

 stem-leaves much smaller. Flowers bell-shaped, § inch across, white. 

 Pedicels as long as, or twice as long, as the calyx. Capsule ^ inch 

 long. Plant deep dull-green. Stem, pedicels, calyx, petioles, and 

 margins of the leaves thickly clothed with shaggy jointed glan- 

 dular hairs. 



IVldte Meadow Saxifrage. 



French, Saxifrage Grenne. German, Knolkntrarjender Steiribrech. 



Notwithstanding the popular name of the Saxifrages, they really possess no such 

 powers as are attributed to them ; and the only way in which they could even have 

 afforded relief to sufferers from calculous diseases must have been by their mucilaginous 

 nature, which may possibly be the case. The granulated roots of our present species, 

 resembling as it were small motes, were confirmations strong to the signature phy- 

 sicians of bygone times of the potency of the plant in calculous complaints, aud as its 

 white flowers indicated that it was governed by the moon, its credit remained long 

 unquestioned by such as, led by astrologers, believed that the heavens 



" Shed down their stellar virtues on all plants 

 That grow on earth, made thereby after to receive 

 Refection from the sun's more potent ray." 



Section VI.— DACTYLOIDES. Tausch. 



Flowering-stem with leafy barren shoots at the base. Leaves 

 on the flowering-stems alternate (rarely none), mostly palniately 

 cleft, with hairs articulated to the margins. Flowers usually white. 

 Calyx with the sepals cohering at the base in a tube which adheres 

 to the ovary. 



SPECIES XIV.-SAXI FRAG A C.33SPITOSA. Linn. 



Plate DLVI. 

 Barren shoots short, terminating in rosettes, and, together 

 with those at the base of the flowering-shoots, forming dense 

 cushions. Leaves of the rosettes wedge-shaped, attenuated into 

 winged petioles ; lamina slightly dilated, 3- or 5-cleft, with oblong 

 parallel-sided lobes, rounded at the apex, those on the flowering- 

 stem lew, the lowest ones resembling those of the rosette, with 



