[Sidenote: =Alumroot=
_Heuchèra rubéscens_
=Pink and white
Summer
Southwest, Utah, Nev.=]
This is not so tall and the leaves, with blunt teeth and sometimes
slightly lobed, are smaller. In Utah they are dark green and shining
on the upper side, smooth or slightly downy, with a bristle at the
tip of each lobe, often reddish on the under side, and in Yosemite
quite rough, with hairs on the edges and veins. The flowers are about
a quarter of an inch across, the calyx deep-pink, with blunt, green
teeth, the petals long, narrow and white, the general effect of the
flower being pink. The clusters are not nearly so airy as those of
_H. micrantha_ and in the high Sierras the stems are shorter and the
clusters still more compact. This was first found on one of the islands
in Great Salt Lake. There are other similar kinds, some with greenish
flowers.
There are several kinds of Micranthes, perennials, sometimes with
bulblets at the base of the stem; leaves thickish, from the root;
flowers white, in terminal clusters; petals five, mostly without claws;
stamens ten; ovary slightly inferior.
[Sidenote: =Tall Swamp Saxifrage=
_Micránthes Oregàna (Saxifraga)_
=White
Summer
Northwest=]
This is conspicuous on account of its height, with a stout, stiff,
leafless, hairy flower-stalk, three feet or more tall, springing from a
loose rosette of smooth, thickish, bright-green leaves, not standing up
stiffly but spreading, sometimes nearly a foot long, paler on the under
side and obscurely toothed at the ends, with some minute hairs along
the lower margins. The flowers are small, with cream-white petals,
orange-red anthers and a green ovary, and form a long branching cluster
towards the top of the stalk. This grows in swamps in the mountains.
[Sidenote: =Saxifrage=
_Micránthes rhomboídea (Saxifraga)_
=White
Spring, summer
Southwest, Idaho, Utah, Col.=]
A little alpine plant, growing in moist soil, or on mossy rocks. The
sticky-hairy flower-stem is from two to twelve inches tall, springing
from a cluster of dull-green root-leaves, toothless, or toothed towards
the ends, slightly thickish and very slightly downy and the flowers are
small, and form a compact cluster.
[Illustration: Saxifrage--Micranthes rhomboidea.