DECANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Saxifraga. 281 



which the central one is often 3-cleft, the lateral ones more 

 deeply and unequally 3-lobed, giving the whole leaf, though 

 simple, a pedate figure. The lobes are variable in breadth on 

 different plants. Footstalks thrice the length of the leaves, bor- 

 dered, ribbed, purjjlish, a little hairy. Stems a span high, soli- 

 tary from the leafy crown of each annual shoot, erect, round, 

 slightly leafy, alternately branched, panicled at the top ; their 

 leaves variously divided, often doubly 3-cleft ; the uppermost 

 undivided. Panicles variously corymbose, or cymose, level- 

 topped, with downy glutinous stalks, and narrow linear hracteas ; 

 principal one of 10 or 12 flowers, one of which is central; the 

 others of fewer. Fl. white, small in proportion to the size of 

 the plant, erect. CaZ. almost entirely superior ; its segments 

 erect, linear-lanceolate, acute, 3-ribbed, downy and viscid like 

 the germen, which they much exceed in length, but the ripe 

 capsule almost equals them in that respect. Styles finally much 

 longer than the calyx, with nearly smooth stigmas. Caps, glo- 

 bose. The lobes of the young and narrower leaves are more 

 acute, and often bristle-pointed. Those of Ehrhart's specimen 

 are broader, and rather blunter, than in Mr. Don's. 



S. geranioides, well represented in Gouan's lllustrationes, t. IS./. 2, 

 differs from this in the more numerous and shallow notches of 

 its leaves, and especially in the long, narrow, linear segments 

 of the calyx, always rising above the permanent styles. The 

 petals also are larger and broader, often having 5 ribs. It can- 

 not be confounded with our plant ; and S. ceratnphylla, Sims 

 in Curt. Mag. t. 1651, though of the same tribe, difl'ers widely 

 in the leaves, panicle, and calyx. S. ladanifera moreover, La^ 

 peyr. Fyren. t. 42, appears, on reconsideration, distinct from 

 pedatifida and geranioides, in the broad, short, recurved segments 

 of its calyx, not half so long as the ripe capside, or permanent 

 styles. The leaves also differ essentially. None of these are 

 natives of Switzerland. 



I have thus endeavoured to furnish the British botanist with ma- 

 terials, at least, towards the history of this most difficult genus, 

 correcting my own mistakes, but not presuming to reject, or to 

 decide upon, any thing I have not examined. It cannot but be 

 remarked that many of the specific characters are too indefinite, 

 and not discriminative ; the cause of which is that we are not 

 as yet well acquainted with what constitutes a species in Saxi- 

 fraga, nor how to define their difl^erences. Notwithstanding the 

 highly praise-worthy labours of Mr. Don, the exotic kinds, and 

 especially the Swiss ones, require complete revision, by a com- 

 parison of original specimens with living ones, both wild and 

 cultivated. The freaks of horticulture are eminently worth at- 

 tention, as teaching us what to avoid ; for distinctions that 

 appear, and vanish again, before our eyes, cannot serve as indi- 

 cations of permanent species. Genuine specific charact^;rs 



