192 SAXIFBAGACE^. [Saxifraga. 



Seeds numerous. Albumen fleshy. — Small, mostly herbaceous 

 plants, frequent in northern and alpine regions." — Br. Fl. 



I. Saxifeaga, Linn. Saxifrage. 



" Calyx superior, or inferior, or half-inferior, in 5 segments. 

 Petals 5. Stamens 10, or sometimes 5. Ovary 2-celled. Capszde 

 with 2 beaks, 2-celled, many-seeded." — Br. Fl. 



1. S. tridactylites, L. Rue-leaved Saxifrage. Viscid and glan- 

 dular, leaves wedge-shaped 3-cleft, uppermost bracteas undivided, 

 stem erect pajjicled, pedicels single-flowered, petals scarcely longer 

 than the sepals very small, germen inferior. Sm. E. Fl. ii. p. 

 271. Br. Fl. p. 154. E. B. t. 501. Curt. Fl. Lond. i. fasc. 2, 

 t. 28. 



On dry, barren, sandy or stony ground, wall-tops, rocks and roofs, but not com- 

 mon, i^/. April, May. i^r. June. 0. 



E. Med. — On the old walls of Quarr Abbey, in some plenty. 



W. Med. — On the porch of Gatcombe church, in plenty. Gurnet common, 

 abundant. Miss G. Kilderhee ! Carisbrooke castle. Dr. Martin. 



Herb brittle and succulent, growing for the most part in dense caespitose mas- 

 ses, often of considerable extent. Root a bundle of pale slender fibres. Stems 

 procumbent or prostrate below, from 3 or 4 to 8 or 10 inches in length, oppositely 

 branched at the base and rooting near the joints, the barren and flowering shoots 

 erect or ascending ; pale and pellucid, more or less obtusely quadrangular, and as 

 it were somewhat winged from a groove on each side and opposite to the leaves, 

 smooth or in part slightly hairy, twice or thrice dichotomously forked at the sum- 

 mit, the lowermost or principal forking, almost always leafless, and bearing no 

 blossom in its axil like the superior divisions. Leaves on the main stem and bar- 

 ren branches opposite ; those beneath the ultimate, penultimate and secondary 

 forkings at the corymbose extremities of the former, solitary ; all, except the larger 

 and paler leaves, near the base bright green, shining, a little fleshy, obscurely 

 veined, not an inch long and broad at furthest, for the most part quite glabrous, 

 but those towards the base, and sometimes the uppermost leaves themselves, more 

 or less rough with short, scattered, setose hairs, semiorbicular, sometimes wider 

 than long or subreniform, at other times inclining to ovato-rotundate, always very 

 obtuse, abrupt, trnncate or cuneate at the base or somewhat rounded, broadly and 

 shallowly sinuato-crenate, on broad, flatlisb, grooved petioles, mostly shorter than 

 themselves and subconnate. Stipules none. J^/oroers small, about 3 lines in dia- 

 meter, greenish yellow, constituting a little leafy corymb at the summit of each of 

 the two main forks of the stem, the uppermost of all approximate, 3 together, ses- 

 sile, those in the forks of the secondary divisions solitary, often pedicellate. Pe- 

 rianth 4-cleft, its segments broadly ovate, subacute, nerveless. Stamens 8, iheir 

 short erect filaments inserted in so many marginal notches around the fleshy peri- 

 gynousdisk; anMCT-s bright yellow, at length reddish, rotundato-ovate, bursting 

 laterally. Germen deeply cleft or didymous, encircled by a flat, glandular, necta- 

 riferous and crenate disk ; styles 2, about (he length of the stamens, erect, taper- 

 ing, divaricate above ; stigmas simple. Capsule small, green, glabrous and 

 shining, about as long as the calyx and adnate with it in its lower half, 1 -celled, 

 2-valved, opening between the 2 conical style-tipped lobes or beaks. Seeds nume- 

 rous, minute, parietal, ovato-globose, with a blunt keel-like border along one-half 

 of their greater circumference, reddish brown, hispid with short pellucid points or 

 bristles. 



