54 Introduction to Botany. 



1. Alyssum maritimum, L. (L., maritimus, relating to the sea.) SWEET 

 Alyssum. White, honey-scented flowers. Stems spreading ; leaves lanceolate 

 or linear, entire, green, or slightly hoary. Rounded pods with a single seed in 

 each cell. Cultivated. 



SAXIFRAGACE.^;. Saxifrage Family. 



Herbs or shrubs with opposite or alternate, exstipulate leaves. 

 Flowers perfect or polygamo-dicecious. Calyx mostly 5-lobed or 

 parted, usually persistent and more or less adnate to the ovary or free 

 from it. Petals 4-5. Stamens sometimes twice as many as the petals 

 (sometimes more numerous), when of the same number alternate with 

 them, perigynous or epigynous. Carpels l-several, mostly 2, united 

 or free. Styles as many as the carpels or cells of the ovary, or united 

 into I. Fruit a capsule, follicle, or berry; seeds mostly many. 



I. SAXIFRAGA. Saxifrage. 



(L., sajrwm, a rock; frajigere ^ to break.) 



Perennial herbs. Calyx 5-Iobed, free from or adnate to the base 

 of the ovary. Petals 5 and perigynous. Stamens 10, inserted with 

 the petals. Ovary 2-lobed and 2-celled. Capsule 2-beaked. Seeds 

 numerous. 



L. Saxifraga Pennsylvinica, L. Swamp Saxifrage. Stout, i to 3 or more 

 feet high. Leaves 4 to 10 inches long and sometimes 3 inches wide, varying from 

 oval to oblanceolate, narrowing at the base into a short petiole, clustered at the 

 base. Stem scapose, bearing flowers in large, oblong, open panicles. , Calyx 

 reflexed. Petals longer than the calyx, greenish. Follicles divergent when 

 mature. On wet banks or in bogs. 



2. Saxifrage Virginiensis, Michx. Early Saxifrage. Scapes 4 to 12 inches 

 high, viscid-pubescent. Leaves obovate-spatulate, narrowing into a petiole, crenate 

 or dentate, i to 3 inches long, or longer. Flowers clustered in cymes, the inflores. 

 cence becoming a loose panicle. Flowers white, J to J inch broad. Calyx lobea 

 erect, shorter than the petals. Carpels nearly separate and becoming widely 

 divergent in fruit. Dry hillsides and rocky woodlands. 



II. PHILADELPHUS. Mock Orange or Syringa. 



iGT.,ph{Ios, loving: adelphos, brother. No obvious reason for the name.) 



Shrubs with opposite, petioled, exstipulate leaves. Flowers large, 

 white or cream-colored, terminal or axillary. Calyx tube coherent with 

 the ovary, 4-5-lobed. Petals 4-5, rounded or obovate. Stamens 20-40. 

 Ovary 3-5-celled ; styles 3-5, distinct or united. Capsule top-shaped, 



