Plants -- Identification; Wild flowers -- Great Britain
The Starry Saxifrage (_S. stellaris_) is a somewhat similar plant, but
much smaller, rarely exceeding six inches in height. It is frequent on
wet rocks in the North, flowering in July and August. Its leaves are
sessile, oblong or obovate, tapering towards the base, thin, and
arranged in spreading rosettes; and the stem is leafless with the
exception of little bracts at the base of the pedicels. The starlike
flowers, larger than those of the last species, are white, with two
yellow spots on each petal, and are arranged in a loose panicle on
spreading pedicels. The calyx is adherent to the ovary only at the base,
with its segments turned down on the pedicels; and the petals are narrow
and spreading.
Another Northern species--the Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (_S.
aizoides_)--is abundant on the wet rocks of mountainous districts,
flowering from June to September. It is a tufted plant, with branched,
decumbent, leafy stems, about six inches long; and crowded, narrow,
fleshy leaves, about half an inch long, fringed with hairs at the base.
The flowers are yellow, in a loose panicle. The calyx is yellow, like
the petals, but much shorter, and erect; and the ovary is adherent to
the short tube of the calyx to about half way up.
The Rue-leaved or Three-fingered Saxifrage (_S. tridactylites_) is a
small species, rarely exceeding four or five inches in height, common on
walls in most parts of Britain, flowering from April to July. The whole
plant is usually more or less tinged with red, and its erect stem is
covered with fine glandular hairs. The radical leaves are very small,
stalked, and undivided; those of the upper part of the stem are also
small and entire, but sessile; and the intermediate leaves, lower on the
stem, are palmately divided into three or five narrow segments. The
small white flowers are placed singly on rather long terminal and
axillary stalks; and the hairy calyx, which adheres to the ovary, has
five blunt lobes less than half the length of the petals.
[Illustration: THE WALL PELLITORY.]
Our last example of this order is the Cut-leaved or Mossy Saxifrage (_S.
hypnoides_), a very variable plant, from three to ten inches high,
rather rare in South England, but much more common in the rocky parts of
North England and Scotland. It has numerous procumbent, barren stems
with tufted leaves; and erect flowering stems bearing a few small leaves
and a loose cyme of a few white flowers. Most of the leaves are narrow,
pointed, entire, about a quarter of an inch long; but the larger ones,
at the base of the plant, are about twice as long, and divided into
three or five narrow lobes. The calyx adheres to the ovary to about
two-thirds of the length of the latter, and has five lobes about
one-third as long as the petals. This species flowers from May to July.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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