84 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



GENUS II— € HRYSOSPLENIUM. Linn. 



Calyx-tube united to the ovary ; limb with 4 or 5 obtuse lobes, 

 coloured within. Petals none. Stamens 8 or 10 (twice as many 

 as the calyx-segments), inserted at the edge of an epigynous disk. 

 Styles 2. Capsule obovate, compressed, 1-celled, notched at the 

 summit, splitting to the middle into 2 fiat valves ; placentae parietal. 

 Seeds numerous, with a crustaceous testa. 



Perennial succulent herbs, with the stems frequently dicho- 

 tomous. Leaves stalked, opposite or alternate, crenate. Flowers 

 yellow, shortly stalked, in cymose glomerules, arranged in a leafy 

 fiat corymbose cyme. 



The name of this genus is compounded from the words ■xpvaoQ, gold, and <nrX»jv, 

 the spleen, in reference to the golden colour of the flowers, and the supposed virtue ot 

 the plant in diseases of the spleen. 



SPECIES I.-CHRYSOSPLENIUM OPPOSITIFOLIUM. 



Lin a. 



Plate DLXIII. 



Stems branched, decumbent, rooting at the lower joints. Leaves 



opposite, roundish, repandly crenate, truncate at the base and 



suddenly contracted into a petiole not exceeding the length of 



the lamina. 



In damp places in woods, by the side of ditches and streams, 

 and on wet rocks. Generally distributed, but rare or local in tin- 

 South, common in the North. 



England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Spring. 



Pootstock slender, creeping, passing insensibly into the weeping 

 base of the stem. Stem fragile, succulent, with opposite branches 

 especially towards the base; branches and flowering portion of the 

 stem ascending. Leaves in numerous pairs ; lamina \ to 1 inch 

 in diameter ; petiole scarcely so long as the lamina. Flowering- 

 shoots 3 to G inches high, with 1 or 2 pairs of leaves, terminating 

 in a dichotomous flat corymbose cyme. Flowers 7 \ inch across. 

 Calyx-segments ovate, generally 4 in number, more rarely 5, green 

 on the outside, yellow within. Capsule two-thirds inferior, with 

 2 short erect beaks. Seeds reddish-brown. Plant dull-green, the 

 lower part of the stem and upper surface of the leaves clothed with 

 transparent white hairs. 



Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage. 



French, Darin-: it Fcnilks opposees. German, Qegenblattriges Mikkraut. 



