Perennial herbs, with densely leafy short caudices and offsets and sparingly leafy flower-stems, and alternate serrate leaves with each tooth white-encrusted, the flowers in terminal compound cymes. Calyx-lobes 5, erect. Corolla white or sometimes colored, regular, the petals broad, clawless. Stamens 10; filaments lanceolate to lanceolate-subulate. Ovary about one-half inferior, the carpels united to above the middle. Follicles united up to the more or less spreading tips. [Greek, referring to the texture of the leaves.]

About 9 species, most abundant in the mountains of middle Europe. Type species: Chondrosea pyramidalis Haw.

1. Chondrosea Aizòon (Jacq.) Haw. Livelong Saxifrage

Fig. 2169

Saxifraga Aizoon Jacq. Fl. Austr. 5: 18. pl. 438. 1778. Chondrosea Aizoon Haw. Saxifr. Enum. 11 1821.

Leaves clustered in a dense rosette at the base of the bracted flowering stem; plant spreading by offsets, so that several are often joined together. Leaves 4"-12" long, spatulate, thick, obtuse and rounded at the apex, the margins serrulate with sharp hard white teeth; scape erect, viscid-pubescent, 4'-10' high; flowers several or numerous, corymbose, yellowish, about 3" broad; calyx-lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse, viscid, shorter than the obo-vate, often spotted petals; capsule tipped by the divergent styles, its base adnate to the calyx.

On dry rocks, Mt. Mansfield, Vermont; Quebec to Labrador, west to Lake Superior and Manitoba. Also in alpine and arctic Europe. Summer.

9. THÉROFON Raf. New Fl. N. A. 4: 66. 1836.

[Boykinia Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phila. 7: 113. 1834. Not Raf.] Glandular-pubescent perennial herbs, with alternate peti-oled orbicular or reniform leaves, and small white perfect flowers in branching panicles. Calyx-tube top-shaped or subglobose, adnate to the ovary, its limb 5-lobed. Petals 5, deciduous, inserted on the calyx-tube. Filaments short. Ovary 2-celled (rarely 3-celled); styles 2, rarely 3. Capsule 2-celled, the beaks of the carpels divergent. Seeds numerous, the testa shining, minutely punctate. [Greek, beast-killing; an old name of aconite.]

About 10 snecies. natives of the southern Alleghanies and the mountains of western North America. Type species: Boykinia aconitifolia Nutt.

1. Therofon Aconitifòlium (Nutt.) Millsp. Aconite Saxifrage

Fig. 2170

boykinia aconitifolia Nutt. Journ. Acad. Phil.

7: 113. 1834. Therofon napelloides Raf. New Fl. 4: 66. 1836. Saxifraga aconitifolia Field. Sert. Pl. pl. 57.

1844. Therofon aconitifolium Millsp. Bull. West Va.

Agric. Exp. Sta. 2: 561. 1892.

Stem rather stout, erect, 1°-2° high. Lower and basal leaves long-petioled, reni-form-orbicular, cordate or truncate at the base, slightly scabrous above, glabrous or with a few scale-like hairs along the veins beneath, palmately 5-7-lobed, the lobes ob-ovate or oval, sharply incised-serrate; upper leaves short-petioled; bracts of the inflorescence foliaceous, incised; cymes panicled; pedicels and calyx viscid; flowers white, about 2" broad; calyx-lobes lanceolate, erect; petals oblanceolate, spatulate at base; capsule adnate to the calyx-tube, only its divergent beaks free. In woods, mountains of southwestern Virginia to North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. July.