JOURNAL 



OF THE 



Royal Horticulttjeal Society. 



NOTES ON SAXIFEAGES. 

 By Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., F.L.S. 



[Bead March 12, 1889.] 



My function to-day is, I believe, partly to give a short lecture, 

 and partly to start a discussion. I have not made a special 

 study of Saxifrages, but they are a set of plants which are so 

 prominent in gardens and in the flora of the north temperate 

 zone that anyone working at botany soon gets to know a good 

 deal about them. I think that discussions between cultivators 

 on the one hand, and botanists on the other, ought to be really 

 useful. At any rate, speaking as a botanist, I can bear testimony 

 that as soon as I begin to study any genus of garden plants, 

 whether it be Lilium or Iris, or Crocus or Narcissus, or Aqui- 

 legia or Helleborus, I very soon find that there are many things 

 which throw light upon the relationship of the types and their 

 geographical distribution and modes of propagation which seem 

 at first sight elementary, but which I do not understand fully 

 and clearly ; and then, if I can, I get hold of some cultivator who 

 works with his eyes open and catechise him freely. As I pass 

 on my way to-day I will illustrate what I mean by asking a few 

 questions of this kind as they naturally arise. 



Alpine plants. — What are called in gardens " Alpine plants " 

 are a group which possess a wonderful history, and which in 

 geographical botany are recognised as forming a distinctly- 

 marked class. It would appear that the last great geological 

 revolution, reaching in its effects over the whole of the north 

 temperate zone, has been a change from a much colder climate 

 to the present state of things ; that before this change a large 

 proportion of the species, as they now stand, were in existence ; 

 and that when the change came they retreated from the low 



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