Part II. SAXIFRAGA. 315 



SAXIPEAGrA CORDIFOLIA. — Heart-leaved Saxifrage. 



Entirely different in aspect to the ordinary dwarf section of 

 Saxifrages, with very ample leaves, roundish-heart-shaped, on 

 long and thick stalks, toothed ; flowers a clear rose, arranged 

 in dense masses, which are half concealed among the great leaves 

 in early spring, apparently hiding under them from the cutting 

 breath of March. S. crassifolia is allied to this, and is useful 

 for similar purposes. They grow and flower in any soil or 

 position, and are thoroughly hardy ; but it is desirable to en- 

 courage their early-flowering habit by placing them in warm 

 sunny positions, where the fine flowers may be induced to open 

 well. They are perhaps more worthy of association with the 

 larger spring flowers and with herbaceous plants than with 

 dwarf alpines, and are well worthy of being naturalised on bare 

 sunny banks, in sunny wild parts of the pleasure-ground, or by 

 wood walks. They may also be used with fine effect on rough 

 rock or root work, near cascades, or on rocky margins to streams 

 or artificial water, their fine, evergreen, glossy foliage being quite 

 distinct. They may, in fact, be called the fine-foliaged plants 

 of the rocks. A native of Siberian mountains. S. ligulata 

 {Megasea ciliatd) is a somewhat tender species, and only suc- 

 ceeds out of doors in mild and warm parts of this country. 



SAXIFRAGA OOTYUEHON.— Pyramidal Saxifrage. 



A NOBLE Saxifrage, which embellishes with its great silvery 

 rosettes and elegant pyramids of white flowers many parts of the 

 great mountain ranges of Europe, from the Pyrenees to Lapland, 

 and easily known by its rather broad leaves, margined with 

 encrusted pores, and its fine handsome bloom. It is the largest 

 of the cultivated Saxifrages, and also the finest except ^. 

 longifolia, of which it has not the linear leaves. The rosettes 

 of the pyramidal Saxifrage differ a good deal in size. When 

 grown in tufts, they are for the most part much smaller, from 

 being crowded, than isolated specimens. The flower-stem varies 

 from six to thirty inches high, and about London, in common 

 soil, will often attain a height of twenty inches, and in cultiva- 

 tion usually attains a greater size than on its native rocks ; 

 though in rich soil, at the base of rocky slopes in a Piedmontese 

 valley, I have seen single rosettes as large as I have ever seen 



