HYDRANGEA. 
339 
2. Saxifraga. Cal. 5-fid or 5-partite more or less united to 
the ov. or free. Pet. 5. Stam. 10 rarely 5. Caps. 2-celled 
2-beaked opening by a pore between the beaks. — Herbs 
per. or ann. FI. corymbose. 
Tribe I. Hydrangeas. 
1. Hydrangea L. 
tttl. H. HORTENSIS Sm. 
L. ovate or oval acute serrulate and with the branches wholly 
smooth and shining ; corymbs large globose ; abortive fl. very 
numerous crowded, with the enlarged cal. -lobes rounded and 
quite entire ; fertile very few 2-3-styled. — Smith Ic. Piet. i. 
t. 12 ; H. Hortensia DC. iv. 15. Hortensia opuloides Lam. Enc. 
iii. 136. H. specio-sa Pers. Syn. 505. Primula mutabilis Lour. 
Coch. i. 127. Viburnum serratum aut V. tomentosum Thunb. ? — 
Shr. per. Mad. reg. 2, cult. cc. The Mount, Camaxa, S t0 Ant« 
da Serra, Maxico, P t0 da Cruz, S ta Anna, S. Vicente, &c., com- 
mon as a fence about houses and gardens, above 1000 ft. July- 
Oct. — A low shr. branched from the base 2-4 or 5 ft. high wholly 
smooth with stiff straight thickish hollow or pithy branches and 
habit altogether of a Viburnum. L. 3-5 in. long, 2-4 broad, 
coarsely ribbed dark or full gr. very shining deciduous. Fl. in 
vast globose crowded heads, of a peculiar copperas -blue, very 
rarely in Mad. pink or rose. At a distance large masses of the 
pi. in fl. seen near the ridge of a mountain-slope look like gaps 
or holes through the liill-side with the blue sky beyond. The 
almost constant blue of the fl. in Mad. is doubtless attributable 
to the prevalence of iron-oxide in the soil. 
Almost every one at first sight, deceived like Thunberg by its 
resemblance to Viburnum and especially to V. Opulus L. (3. stc- 
rilis (the common Snowball-tr. or Guelder-rose), would refer 
Hortensia to Caprifoliacese rather than to Saxifragace£e. Yet 
is the resemblance to the former more apparent than real : for the 
sterile radiant fl. of Hydrangea ho?'te?isis owe their size and 
beauty to the monstrous enlargement of the cal. -lobes or sep., 
whilst in V. Opulus /3. the same effect is produced by develop- 
ment of the pet. And the difference from the latter is one at 
most of habit and foliage, — owing in great measure to partial or 
confined ideas of Saxifragacese from acquaintance only with the 
European normal type Saxifraga, — whilst the fl. and fr. are es- 
sentially Saxifragaceous. 
