SAXIFRAGE FAMILY. 



271 



Shaded ravines and canons near the coast: Santa Cruz Mountains: 

 Mendocino Co. and northward. 



5. HEUCHERA L. Alum Root. 

 Perennial herbs with stout rootstocks. Leaves radical, rounded, 

 cordate and lobed. Flowering stems scape-like, or with 1 to 3 leave-, 

 bearing an open or condensed panicle of small flowers in cymose 

 clusters. Calyx campanulate or somewhat turbinate, its tube adnate 

 to the lower £ of the ovary. Petals 5, very small or wanting, when 

 present inserted on the throat of the calyx, clawed and entire. 

 Stamens 5, ours with slender filaments. Capsule 1 -celled with 2 

 parietal placenta?, dehiscent between the 2 beaks. (J. H. Heucher, 

 1677-1747, German Professor of Medicine.) 



Cymes loose, the pedicels longer than the flowers; calyx turbinate at base. 



1 . H. micraiitha. 



Cymes close, the pedicels shorter than the flowers; calyx rounded at base . 



2. H. pilosissima. 



1. H. micrantha Dougl. Flowering stems 1 to 3 ft. high; peti- 

 oles and stems pilose-hirsute, the leaves hirsutulous and the inflores- 

 cence glandular-puberulent; leaves round- or ovate-cordate, 2 to 4 in. 

 long, obtusely lobed and crenate-toothed, on petioles as much as 10 

 in. long; flowers in an ample loose panicle; calyx 1 line long, shorter 

 than the slender pedicels; petals, stamens and styles exserted; petals 

 narrowly oblong, rather shorter than the calyx. 



Monterey and northward, common in the Bay Region, especially 

 toward the coast; not collected in the inner Coast Ranges. Found in 

 the Sierra Nevada. May-June. 



2. H. pilosissima F. & M. Very glandular villous. 1 to 2 ft. 

 high; pedicels shorter than the flowers, these in close clusters and 

 panicle less ample than in the preceding; calyx globular, 1£ to 2£ 

 lines long; petals, filaments and style little exserted. 



Near the coast from Monterey to Humboldt Co. 



H. hubescens Torr., of the Sierra Nevada, has leaves 1£ or mostly 

 1 in. in diameter or less and an oblong-campanulate calyx commonly 

 tinged with rose-purple. 



6. PARNASSIA L. Grass of Parnassus. 

 Glabrous perennial herbs with entire leaves in a radical tuft. 

 Flowers solitary, white, on scape-like stems, which commonly bear a 

 single small sessile leaf. Sepals slightly united at base. ' Petals 

 greenish- or yellowish-veined, each bearing at base a cluster of gland- 

 tipped sterile filaments. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals. Ovary 

 1-celled; stigmas 4 (or 3), sessile, opposite the same number of pla- 

 centa?. Capsule 3 or 4-valved, the valves placenta-bearing along their 

 middle. Seed-coat loose, somewhat winged. 



I. P. palustris L. var. California Gray. Scape 9 to 14 in. 

 high; leaves elliptic, 1 to 1£ in. long, contracted at base into a petiole 

 which is short or twice as long as the blade; petals oval or obovate, 6 

 to 9 lines long; sterile filaments capillary, 20 to 24 in a set, united to 

 the middle, each tipped with an antheroid protuberance. 



