32 KEY TO THE SPECIES 



XXVI. CRASSULACEiE (Orpine Family) 



Usually fleshy herbs with sessile leaves, flower parts all of 

 the same number or the stamens double, and fruit a pod. 



1. SEDUM 



Smootli thick-leaved herbs with flowers sessile along one side of spreading 

 flowering branches, the first or central flower mostly with 5 sepals and petals and 

 10 stamens, the others often with 4 sepals and petals and 8 stamens, and 4 or 5 

 distinct pistils ripening into many-seeded pods. 



1. Sedum stenopetalum Pursh (Stoneobop). A tufted glabrous fleshy 

 perennial, 8-15 em. high ; leaves crowded, terete, acute, sessile, about 1 cm. long ; 

 flowers bright yellow. Very common on stony slopes. Foliage often deeply tinged 

 with red before flowering. 



XXVII. SAXIFRAGACEiE (Saxipbage Family) 



Herbs or shrubs with alternate and opposite leaves usually 

 without stipules, mostly 10 stamens, and a 1-5-celled superior 

 or inferior ovary becoming a pod. 



* Herbs. 



1. Saxlfraga. Petals entire ; ovary of S nearly distinct cells with divergent 

 tips. 



2. Tellima. Petals cleft ; ovary 1-celled, with 3 or 3 short styles. 



3. Heuchera. Petals entire, minute ; ovary 1-celled, the capsule 2-beaked. 



4. Parnassia. Petals fringed, large ; ovary 1-celled, with 3 or 4 sessile 

 stigmas. 



* » Shrubs. 



5. Edwijiia. Leaves serrate ; cymes 5-10 flowered. 



6. Fendlera. Leaves entire ; flowers 1-3. 



1. SAX! FRAG A (Saxifrage) 



, Herbs with clustered basal leaves, stems naked or with alternate leaves, a 

 terminal cluster of flowers, a 5-clef t calyx, 5 entire petals, 10 stamens, 2 styles, and 

 a 2-celled ovary becoming a 2-beaked pod or 2 almost separate and divergent pods. 

 (See Plant Structures, p. 58, Fig. 48.) 



1. Saxifraga rhomboidea Greene (Snow-ball Saxifrage). Stem a stout 

 leafless scape, 1-3 dm. high ; leaves a rosulate tuft at the base, from rhombic-ovate 

 to oval, toothed or crenate, on short broad petioles ; the small white flowers in a 

 dense spherical head about 3 cm. in diameter, in fruit more open. Abundant on 

 moist slopes in the foothills ; early spring. 



2. Saxifraga punctata L. Stemless; the leaves long-petioled, nearly gla- 

 brous, reniform or orbicular, deeply dentate ; scapes 3-5 dm. long ; flowers in an 

 open panicle ; peduncle, pedicels and free calyx glandular ; petals white, oval or 

 orbicular. Frequent on the banks of cold sub-alpine rivulets. 



