194 SAXIFRAGACEiE. Saxifraga, 



§ 3. Stemless, or sometimes a leaf or two on the lower part of the scape, no perma- 

 nent caudex rising above the ground: calyx 5 -parted or 5-cleft : petals almost 

 always white. 



* Leaves not cordate, contracted at base into a margined petiole or nearly sessile: fila- 

 ments not enlarged upward or rarely slightly so : lierbage or at least the inflores- 

 cence more or less glandular or viscid-pubescent. 



-t- Nalced simple scape and cluster of rather large thichish leaves rising from a short 

 and thickish root or caudex : base of calyx coherent with the base of the 2-parted 

 ovary: petals roundish, obovate or oblong-spatulate, very obtuse; the claw very short 

 or none. 



3. S. Virginiensis, Michx. Leaves from roundish- to oblong-ovate or spatulate- 

 obovate, coarsely toothed or almost entire, an inch or two long, and the margined 

 petiole often as long : scape a span to a foot high, at length loosely many-flowered 

 in a paniculate cyme : some of the pedicels slender : petals obovate, twice the length 

 of the merely spreading calyx. 



Shaded rocky places in the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada : also in Oregon, the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and common in the Atlantic States. The Califomian specimens resemble slender forms of 

 the common vernal eastern species. 



4. S. nivalis, Linn. Like the preceding, but mostly smaller and condensed : 

 scape 2 to 5 inches high : flowers fewer, sessile or very short-pedicelled, and crowded 

 in a capitate simple or compound cluster : petals oblong or spatulate, little exceed- 

 ing the erect calyx-lobes : styles very short or hardly any : ovary and fruit usually 

 dark purple. * 



High Sierra Nevada, above the Yosemite {Brewer) and above Cisco (Bolander) ; thence to the 

 arctic regions, &c, and round the frigid zone. The var. tenuis, Wahl. (E. Humboldt Mountains, 

 Watson, thence northward and eastward), may occur in the State. It has more open inflores- 

 cence, rather larger petals, and probably passes into S. Virginiensis. Its filaments are not rarely 

 distinctly broadened above the middle. 



5. S. integrifolia, Hook. Leaves from ovate or obovate to lanceolate-spatulate, 

 1 to 5 inches long, denticulate or entire, narrowed at base into a very short and 

 margined (or rarely longer and more distinct) petiole : scape 1 to 3 feet high, viscid : 

 flowers in small clusters usually in a narrow thyrsiform panicle : petals obovate or 

 broadly spatulate, somewhat longer than the reflexed calyx-lobes : seeds much larger 

 and with a looser coat than in the foregoing. — Fl. i. 249, t. 86 ; Watson, Bot. 

 King Exp. 93. <S'. hieracifolia, var. (?), Gray in Am. Jour. Sci. xxxiii. 409. 

 S. nivalis, var., Gray in Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 62. 



Swamps, through the foot-hills of, the Sierra Nevada, thence northward to Washington Terri- 

 tory, and east to the Colorado Rocky Mountains. 



+- +- Slender scapes often paniculately branching and bracteate, and, with the tuft of 

 thinner leaves, from a small annual or biennial root or offset : calyx free from the 

 two almost distinct ovaries and reflexed : petals acute, on distinct claws, 2-spotted 

 towards the base : filaments filiform : inflorescence not rarely bearing leaf buds or 

 bulblets in place of blossoms. 



6. S. bryophora, Gray. Slender root or offshoots annual : leaves linear-oblong 

 or spatulate, entire, thickish and nearly veinless, barely half an inch long, almost 

 sessile, sparsely ciliate : scape glabrous, loosely paniculate and with filiform branches 

 and pedicels, flowering only at the apex ; the lateral branches or pedicels bearing a 

 green globose leaf-bud or bulblet, soon deflexed : flower 3 or 4 lines in diameter : 

 petals oblong-ovate, slightly unequal, and with a pair of yellowish spots at the 

 abrupt base, twice the length of the broadly ovate and reflexed sepals : styles hardly 

 any. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 533. S. leucanthemifolia, var. integrifolia, Engler, 

 Saxifr. 135. 



