S A X I F R A'G A M A D E RE N S I S. 
MADEIRA SAXIFRAGE. 
Class. 
DECANDRIA. 
Order. 
DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
SAXIFRAGACE/E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Madeira. 
6 inches. 
April. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 838. 
The word Saxifraga is compounded from sax- 
um, a stone ; and frango, to break ; but its applica- 
tion, by the ancient botanists, is uncertain. 
This genus contains a multiplicity of interesting 
plants, nearly two hundred of which are already dis- 
covered, and by far the greater portion of them quite 
hardy : some are proverbially so ; the Saxifraga 
umbrosa, for instance, obtained its name of London 
Pride from the luxuriance with which it grows and 
flowers in the smoky atmosphere of the metropolis. 
Phillips praises its beauty, and says that when 
viewed under a microscope, its “sprays seem frost- 
ed with diamonds.” Grown in London, it can 
but excite the pity of the sensitive florist, clothed, 
as we have seen its sprays, with a robe of soot — its 
rosettes struggling to shine through its sombre 
leafy garment. 
It was brought to England before 1596, but 
having been lost, has been lately re-introduced by 
J. Janson, Esq., Stoke Newington, by whose kind 
attention we were favoured with an original draw- 
ing of the plant, from the pencil of Mr. R. Kippist, 
Librarian of the Linnean Society. 
Don’s Syst. Bot. 3, 220. 
