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1. SAXIFRAGA (Saxifrage).

Calyx reflexed, inferior; flowers whitish, panicled.

1. S. stelláris (Starry Saxifrage).-Leaves oblong, wedge-shaped, toothed, scarcely stalked; panicles of few flowers. Plant perennial. This plant grows on mountainous places by the sides of rivulets, or on wet rocks in Scotland, England, and the north of Ireland. It is from two to five inches high, its leaves having large roundish notches at their edges. The flowers expand in June and July. They are large and white, with two yellow spots at the base of each petal.

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2. S. Géum (Kidney-shaped Saxifrage). - Leaves roundish and kidney-shaped, sharply toothed, or having rounded notches; foot-stalks hairy, linear, and channelled above; leaves in one form hairy on both sides, in a second variety smooth on both sides. Plant perennial. This species is very nearly allied to the next, but may be distinguished by its kidney-shaped leaves. It flowers in June, and is common on mountains in the south of Ireland. Its ordinary form has the leaves sharply toothed, but there are several hybrids found in its neighbourhood, which have by botanists been described as distinct species. The chief of them is a plant formerly called Hairy Saxifrage (S. hirsuta), which has slightly hairy, oval, dark green leaves, scarcely cordate at the base, and which appears to be intermediate between this and the next species. It is common on the Gap of Dunloe, in Kerry. The Kidney-shaped Saxifrage varies not only in the amount of its hairiness, but

also in respect of size, and in the degree in which the margin of the leaf is toothed.

3. S. umbrósa (London Pride).-Leaves roundish oval, with white cartilaginous notches, tapering at the base into a flat foot-stalk. Plant perennial. This beautiful little flower is well known as one of the few which will bear unhurt the smoke of large cities. It grows well in London, flourishing not only in the squares and open parts of the great city, where many hardy flowers may be found, but cheering also some of the gloomy little spots at the backs of houses in densely populated neighbourhoods. One sighs at the sight of these small plots, though glad that when even the "mournful mint " seemed injured by the sooty mist gathered about it, yet the London Pride survived all the ills of its condition, and perchance soothed some care-worn heart by its cheerful flower. Bishop Mant thus alludes to this and another plant:

"Its disk of white on upland wolds

The pretty Saxifrage unfolds,

With lucid spots of crimson pied,

Hence brought, and hail'd the City's Pride;

And yellow rose-root yields its smell

From Cambrian crag or Cumbrian fell,

Or Rachlin's lone basaltic isle."

This Saxifrage is found on the mountains of Ireland so plentifully that it has a common name of St. Patrick's Cabbage. It is also called None so Pretty, and the old name of Queen Anne's Needlework was doubtless given from the delicate red spots traced on its white petals, and which to some of the embroiderers, who in those days practised the mysteries of "tent work, raised

work, laid work, frost work, Irish stitch, fern stitch, Spanish stitch, rosemary stitch," and many another stitch suggested the remembrance of some one of their manifold traces and devices. Parkinson writing of it in 1629 terms it Sedum, and says, "Some of our English gentlewomen have called it Prince's Feather, which, although it be but a by-name, may well serve for this plant to distinguish it."

The London Pride is rare in England, though found in woods at Wetherby and at Craven, in Yorkshire. The Rev. W. T. Bree, commenting on this plant, says, "Mr. Lees informs us that Saxifraga umbrósa may now be found on some of the rocks at Malvern; but he very properly assigns to it a garden origin. Some years since, while touring in Yorkshire, I was at no small pains in endeavouring to meet with this plant in a truly wild state, and with this view visited the spot (Hestleton Gill) so minutely pointed out as its habitat in English Botany.' The result, however, of my examination was only an increased doubt as to the species being even in this sequestered spot really of spontaneous growth. It has been confidently asserted that the species occurs wild in Ireland; but erroneously, I believe, unless indeed the discovery has been made of late years. The London Prides which grow unquestionably wild, and so profusely adorn the rocks and mountains of Kerry, that is, the Gap of Dunloe, and the rocks near Killarney, are not Saxifraga umbrosa, but some allied species, be they two (S. Geum and hirsuta) or more, with their perplexing host of endless varieties; and I very much doubt whether any truly wild habitat for Saxifraga umbrosa

be yet known, either in Ireland, England, or even Scotland; or, indeed, whether the plant be in fact originally indigenous. Ireland is the proper country of the Robertsonia, by which name the London Pride family of the Saxifrage genus is now often distinguished. In some parts of that country they grow in astonishing profusion; but among all the countless varieties which are to be met with, I never could see in a wild state any one that could be mistaken by a botanist for the true S. umbrosa." Our best writers on British plants, as Professor Hooker, Dr. Arnott, and Mr. Babington, all agree with the opinion that the plant is not indigenous. Besides the places named, it grows about Edinburgh and Glasgow. Several varieties occur of this species, several of which are regarded by some botanists as distinct species. Such a one is the plant called S. elegans, which grows on the Turk mountain, and which has round, smooth, shining serrated leaves, with foot-stalks which are broad, flat, and serrated beneath. The type of the species has smooth leaves, longer than they are broad, with the teeth either blunt or short, and pointed, but the varieties differ much in the toothing, as well as in the form of the leaves.

** Calyx spreading; leaves not divided.

4. S. nivális (Clustered Alpine Saxifrage).-Leaves all from the root, inversely egg-shaped, sharply crenate; calyx half-inferior; flowers in a crowded head. Plant perennial. This Alpine species is from three to six inches high, and has large white flowers growing in a compact cluster. It is frequent among the clefts of

the high mountains of Wales and Scotland. Linnæus stated that this Alpine Saxifrage flowered in the regions of eternal snow; and later botanists have occasionally detected a prolific vegetation existing even under the snow of Arctic regions. Dr. Hooker mentions that whilst at Terra del Fuego he had observed Pernettya mucronata in full bloom in a spot from which the snow had been accidentally removed. A plant, considered by Sir Wm. Hooker and Dr. Arnott as nearly allied to S. nivális, though by some botanists considered to be a monstrous form of S. umbrosa, has been called S. Andrewsii. It is described as having narrow leaves, with a membranaceous margin, tapering at the base into a slightly hairy footstalk; sepals spreading, oblong, and blunt; petals broad and dotted, thrice as long as the calyx. It was found by Mr. Andrews on the Head of Glen Caragh, Kerry, on some moist cliffs.

5. S. aizoides (Yellow Mountain Saxifrage).-Leaves very narrow, fleshy, fringed, the lower ones crowded on the stem, the upper scattered; stem branched, prostrate below; capsule half-superior. Plant perennial. This beautiful Saxifrage, though absent from our lowland meadows, is very abundant on mountains, especially near streams and rills. It is found in the North of England, Wales, and Scotland, having in June and July bright yellow flowers, spotted with reddish orange colour. The plant is sometimes called Aizoon-like Saxifrage, or Sengreen Saxifrage.

6. S. Hirculus (Yellow Marsh Saxifrage).-Stem erect; leaves lanceolate, those from the root tapering into a leaf-stalk; calyx inferior, fringed at the margin; petals