308 



THE SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. 



In rather moist, rocky situations, in the mountains of western Eu- 

 rope, descending occasionally to low, hilly districts. Abundant in 

 Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and northern England, but very local in 

 the southern counties. Fl. summer. It is very variable in the degree 

 of development of its stems, leaves, and flowers, in the more or less 

 viscid hairs, and in the leaves and calyx-segments more or less pointed 

 or almost obtuse. This has given rise to its subdivision into numerous 

 supposed species ; besides that some of its extreme varieties have been 

 mistaken for S. geranioides, S. muscoides, and other Continental species 

 not found in Britain. 



5. Tufted Saxifrage. Saxifraga csespitosa, Linn. (Fig. 376.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 794, and S. palmata, Eng. Bot. t. 455.) 



Very near to the last, but never emit- 

 ting the weak, procumbent barren shoots 

 of that species ; the leaves broader, more 

 obtuse, and more frequently lobed, and 

 the calyx- divisions also obtuse. The 

 short, leafy stems are crowded into dense 

 tufts ; the flowering stems from 2 to 3 

 inches high, generally covered with a 

 short, glandular down, and bearing 1 or 

 2 white flowers, smaller than in the cut- 

 leaved S. 



A high northern and Arctic plant. 

 In Britain, only on some of the higher 

 Scotch mountains, such as Ben Avers 

 and Ben Nevis. Fl. summer. High al- 

 pine forms of the cut-leaved S. have been frequently mistaken for this 

 plant, and are not indeed always easy to distinguish from it. The Irish 

 variety figured (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2909) seems referable rather to the 

 cut-leaved than to the tufted S. 



Fig. 376. 



6. Meadow Saxifrage. Saxifraga granulata, Linn. (Fig. 377.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 500.) 



Perennial stock reduced to a cluster of small bulbs, covered with 

 whitish or brown hairy scales. Stems erect, 6 inches to a foot high, 

 simple or slightly branched, more or less covered with short spreading 

 hairs, which become glandular in the upper part of the plant. Radical 

 and lower leaves on long stalks, reniform, obtusely crenate or lobed, 

 the upper ones few and small, more acutely lobed or entire. Flowers 



