NAT. ORDER. 
Saxifragea. 
SAXIFRAGA LIGULATA. FRINGED SAXIFRAGE. 
Class X. Decandria. Ordei- II. Digynia. 
Gen. Char. Calyx, five, parted. Petals, five, on short claws. Sta- 
meus, tcu. C«psit/es, adnate to the calyx. ^SeetZs, numerous. 
Spe. Char. Leaves, obovate, subcordate. Flowers, pale-red, almost 
white. 
This plant has a thick woody root, bearing several large spread- 
ing, bright-green, broadly ovate leaves, beautifully ciliated at the 
margin, and frequently waved there also; the petiole is short, thick, 
bearing a long, erect, ciliated sheath or ligule (whence the specific 
name) just above where it is set on the stem ; scales five or six inches 
long, with one or two hracteas, and terminated by a cymose panicle 
of large, handsome, white flowers, frequently tinged with rose-color; 
calyx obtuse and red at the base, and greener upwards, and five-cleft ; 
corolla of five, obovate petals, with short claws ; stamens ten ; fila- 
ments erect, alternately shorter, rose-colored ; anthers reddish pur- 
ple ; gernien free ; styles long, erect ; stigmas obtuse. 
Saxifraga petroea. Rock Saxifraga. This plant grows almost 
flat upon the ground, only rising from three to six inches in height; 
the leaves are radical and palmately five-lobed ; cauline ones tripar- 
tite and cut ; peduncles are very long, one-flowered ; calycine seg- 
ments linear, acute ; petals obovate, truncate at the apex and eniar- 
ginate, twice the length of the calyx ; the plant is diflTusely branched, 
and furnished with glanduliferious hairs ; stems erect, branched at 
the base ; branches elongated fastigiate ; radical leaves on Jong peti- 
Vgl. Iv.— 1©3. 
