S A X I E R A G A platypetala.
Broad-petalled Saxifrage.
DECANDRIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. 5-cleft. Petals 5 . Caps, with 2
beaks, 1 cell, and many seeds.
Spec. Char. Leaves in three or five bristle-pointed
segments. Shoots procumbent. Stem somewhat
leafy. Petals obovate, nearly orbicular.
Svn. Saxifraga platypetala. Sm. T r. o f L in n . Soc.
v. 10. 3 4 1 .
J \ x R . TURNER gathered this Saxifrage upon Snowdon in
1802, and communicated it to us long ago as a new species,
which we find confirmed by an examination of all the books
and specimens that have come in our way. Mr. G. Don found
the same on the mountains of Clova, Angusshire, as will ap-~
pear, among many other interesting discoveries of his, in the
10th vol. of the Linnaean Society’s Transactions, part 2.
It is perennial, agreeing greatly in habit with S. hypnoidcs,
t. 454, but is usually more luxuriant. The leaves are less
simple, being almost universally divided into three, sometimes
five, lobes, a few on the upper part of the flowering stem only
being undivided. Each lobe is awned or hair-pointed. The
petals, very useful in discriminating Saxifragce, are remarkably
different, being so broad in their limb as to be almost orbicular.
They have three principal ribs, united in the lower
part, of which the middlemost is either quite simple, or deeply
cloven into two simple branches, while the lateral ribs send off
numerous irregular fine branches, towards the edge of the
petal. The leaves and stem are clothed with scattered soft
hairs, and the flowerstalks and calyx with brownish glandular
viscid ones.