SAXIFRAGA CALIFORNICA Greene, Pittonia, t : 286. 1889.
In the light of recent discoveries, Prof. Greene has not pointed out any reliable distinguishing characters in discussing the rela tions between Saxifraga Ca4fornica and S. Firginiensis. The two species are closely related in habit, and the one is about as varia ble as the other. Prof. Greene lays much stress on the occurrence of small bulblets in but we now know that S. Tiighziensis also possesses this character. After examining many specimens for the purpose of finding some diagnostic characters in the two closely related plants, I find that the flower furnishes the best. Besides the reflexed or erect calyx-segments, these organs in
Saxifraga Cal(fornica are ovate or oblong-ovate and obtuse, while those of S. l'iwullicnsis are triangular, triangular-ovate, or rarely nearly lanceolate, and acute or acutish. The petals furnish another character ; those of the western plant are broadly oval or suborbi cular, some or all notched at the apex, while their lateral nerves vanish in the blade ; in the eastern plant they are narrowly elliptic or elliptic-spatulate, not notched at the apex, and the lateral nerves converge to the mid-nerve at the apex.