120 SAXIFRAGES. 



nous. Ovary of about 2 carpels more or less cohering below, commonly 

 distinct and diverging at apex; style often wanting and stigmas sessile 

 on the tips of the lobes of the ovary. Fruit capsular or follicular (in 

 Ribes baccate). Seeds many, small, albuminous. 



* Herbaceous perennials. 



Stamens 10; 



Scape leafless; fl. in cymes Saxifeaga 1 



Stem sparingly leafy; fl. racemose Tellima 3 



Stem sparingly leafy; fl. panicled Ti arell A 4 



Stamens 5; 



Flowers thyrsoid-panicled Het/chera 5 



Flowers cymose-corymbose Therofon 2 



Flowers solitary on a 1-leayed scape Parnassia 6 



* * Stems more or less woody. 



Low undershrub; leaves opposite Whipplea 7 



Shrubs (often prickly) ; leaves alternate Bibes 8 



1. SAXIFRAGA, Pliny (Saxifrage). Short-stemmed or stemless 

 herbaceous plants with simple leaves, their petioles commonly sheathing 

 at base. Flowers in cymose thyreoid or panicled clusters. Sepals dis- 

 tinct, or at base conjoined to each other and the base of the ovary. 

 Petals entire, imbricate in bud. Stamens 10, inserted with or below the 

 petals, on the base of the calyx, or between it and a fleshy disk. Carpels 

 2, usually partly united, dehiscent by the inside of the divergent beaks. 

 Seeds with thin coat and no wing or appendage 



1. S. Mertensiana, Bong. Scape and leaves from a scaly-bulbous 

 base, glandular-pubescent, % — 1 ft. high: leaves thin and pale, round- 

 cordate, crenately or incisely many-lobed, % — \% in. broad, on long 

 petioles which are scarious-dilated at base: cymose panicle loose, the 

 branches often flowering at apex and bearing granular bulblets down 

 the sides: petals 1 — 2 lines long, oval or oblong, white, with a pair of 

 oval green spots near the base : filaments somewhat petaloid-dilaied. — 

 Sonoma Co., and northward. 



2. S. Californica, Greene. Leaves few, rather thick, reddish- veined, 

 sparsely glandular-villous, oral, oblong or elliptical, 1 — 2 in. long, on 

 broad petioles of % — 1 in. ; margin coarsely crenate to repand-denticulate, 

 rarely either sharply dentate or nearly entire: scape 6 — 18 in. high, 

 loosely cymose-paniculate: calyx nearly free from the ovary, the sepals 

 reflexed: petals oblong, thrice the length of the sepals, white or rose- 

 tinted: filaments subulate, inserted under the edge of an elevated perigy- 

 nous disk which equals the summit of the ovary. — Plentiful on cool 

 northward slopes. March^May. 



2. THEROFON, Raf. Perennial herbs with erect leafy stems, and 

 corymbose or paniculate cymes of white flowers; leaves round-reniform, 

 palmately lobed or toothed, the teeth with callous-glandular tips; the 



