SAXIKUAGE FAMILY. 135 



P. Gordonidinus, eult. from Oregon, is seemingly a variety of the last, 

 vcr\ tall, and the larije flowers appcarinij at midsummer. 



f>. hirsutUS, Hairy M. Wild iii N. Car. and Tenn., sparingly cult. .- 

 slender, with recurving- branches, the small ovate and acute sharply-toothed 

 leaves hairy, and beneath even hoary ; the small white flowers solitary or 

 2-3 together at the end of short racemose side branehlcts. 



5. DEXJTZIA. (Named for one />!(te, an amateur botanist of Amsterdam.) 

 Fine flowering shrubs of Japan and China, with numerous panicles of white 

 blossoms, in late spring and early summer ; the lower side of the leaves, the 

 calyx, &c. beset with minute starry clusters of hairs or scurf. 



D. grdcilis, the smallest species, is 2° high, with lance-ovtite sharply ser- 

 rate leaves bright green and smooth, and rather small snow-white flowers, earlier 

 than the rest, often forced in greenhouses ; filaments forked at the top. 



D. crenita. Commonly planted ; a tall shrub, rough with the fine pube- 

 scence, with pale ovate or oblong-ovate minutely crenate-serrate leaves, and 

 rather dull white blossoms in summer ; the filaments broadest upwards and 

 with a blunt lobe on each side just below the anther. This is generally cult, 

 under the name of the next, viz. 



D. scabra, with more rugose and rougher finely sharp-serrate leaves, and 

 entire taper-pointed filaments : seldom cult. here. 



6. HYDRANGEA. (Name of two Greek words meaning loater and vase ; 

 the application obscure. ) Fl. summer. 



* Cultivated from China and Japan : house-plants N., turned out for summer. 



H. Hoi'teusia, Common Hvdrangea, is very smooth, with largo and 

 oval, coarsely toothed, bright-green leaves, and the flowers of the cyme nearly 

 all neutral and enlai'ged, blue, purple, pink, or white. 



» « Wild species, on shadij hanks of rivers, j^'C, but often planted for ornament. 

 Styles mostlji onlij 2 ; flowers white, the sterile enlarged ones turning green- 

 ish or purplish with age, persistent. 



H. quercif61ia. Oak-leaved H. Stout shrub 3° - 6° high, very leafy, 

 downy, with oval .5-lobed large leaves, and cymes clustered in oblong panicle, 

 with numerous sterile flowers. Wild from Georgia S., hardy N. in cult. 



H. radiata, called more fittingly H. NfvEA, having the ovate or some- 

 what heart-shaped pointed leaves very white-woolly beneath, but smooth and 

 green above ; the flat cyme with a few enlarged sterile flowers round the mar- 

 gin. Wild S. of Virginia. 



H. ai'borescens, wild from Penn. and HI. S., rarely planted, is smooth, 

 with ovate or slightly heart-shaped serrate pointed leaves green both sides, the 

 flat cyme often without any enlarged sterile flowers, but sometimes with a full 

 row round the margin. 



7. PARNASSIA, GT5ASS-0F-PAENASSUS. Wild on wet banks; 

 the large wliite flower handsome, in summer and autumn, y. 



P. Carolini&na, the only common species, both N. & S., has the scape or 

 stem l°-2° high, bearing one clasping leaf low down, and terminated with a 

 flower over 1' broad, the many-veined petals sessile, with 3 stout small sterile 

 filaments before each. 



P. pallistris, scarce on northern borders, is small throughout, with several 

 slender filaments before each few-veined petal. 



P. asarifblia, along the Allcghanies S., has rather kidney-shaped leaves, 

 and petals nan'owed at base into a short claw ; otherwise like the first. 



8. HEUCHERA, ALUM-KOOT, the rootstock being astringent. (Named 

 for a German botanist, Heucher.) Wild plants of rocky woods, chiefly W. 

 and S. along the middle country ; the leaves rounded heart-shaped and more 

 or less lobed or cut, mostly from the rootstock, often one or two on the tall 

 stalk of the panicle. Flowers mostly greenish, in summer. 2/ 



