SAXIFRAGACEAE. 125 



Family 44. SAXIFRAGACEAE. Saxifrage Family. 



Herbs or shrubs ; leaves alternate or opposite ; stipules usually 

 none; flowers perfect or polygamo-dioecious ; calyx usually 5- 

 lobed, free or adherent to the ovary; petals usually 4 or 5, 

 perigynous, rarely none; stamens usually definite in number and 

 not more than twice the number of the calyx-lobes ; pistil formed 

 by the partial or complete union of 2-5 carpels; placentae axile 

 or parietal; seeds usually numerous; endosperm present; em- 

 bryo small. 



Shrubs. 



Leaves alternate. 177. Ribes, 125. 



Leaves opposite. 178. Philadelphus, 127. 



Herbs. 



Ovary 2-celIed; placentae axile. 179. Saxifraga, 127. 



Ovary 1-celled; placentae parietal. 



Petals pinnatifid or 3-cleft into thread-like 



divisions, 180. Mitella, 128. 



Petals not with thread-like divisions. 



Petals cleft or lobed. 181. Tellima, 129. 



Petals small and entire or none. 



Stamens 10. 182. Tiarella, 129. 



Stamens S. 183. Heuchera, 130. 



177 RIBES. Currant, Gooseberry. 



Low sometimes prickly shrubs; leaves alternate, often fas- 

 cicled, palmately- veined and lobed; flowers small, solitary or 

 racemose, mostly terminating short and 1-2-leaved axillary 

 shoots; calyx-tube adherent to the globose ovary and more or 

 less extended beyond it, 5-, rarely 4-cleft, commonly colored or 

 petal-like; petals 4-5, small, perigynous; stamens as many as 

 the petals and alternate with them; styles 2, more or less united; 

 ovary 1-celled; ovules few or numerous; berry globose, fleshy, 

 usually many-seeded. 



Stems armed with spines at the nodes, and often prickly also; 

 fruit not separating from the pedicel. 

 Caly.x-lobes longer than the tube; stamens decidedly 



longer than the whole calyx. R. niveum. 



Calyx-lobes not longer than the tube. 



Stamens scarcely longer than the whole calyx; 



flowers green. R. purpusi. 



Stamens decidedly shorter than the whole calyx; 

 flowers white. 

 Calyx-tube cylindric, pubescent. R. cognatum. 



Calyx-tube campanulate, glabrous. R. irriguum. 



Stems not armed with spines but in some species prickly; 

 fruit easily separating from the pedicel. 

 Stems prickly; calyx saucer-shaped; racemes pendent. R. lacustre. 

 Stems not prickly; calyx various. 



