_Saxifraga virginiensis_
_Flowers_--White, small, numerous, perfect, spreading into a loose
panicle. Calyx 5-lobed; 5 petals; 10 stamens; 1 pistil with 2
styles. _Scape:_ 4 to 12 in. high, naked, sticky-hairy. _Leaves:_
Clustered at the base, rather thick, obovate, toothed, and narrowed
into spatulate-margined petioles. _Fruit:_ Widely spread, purplish
brown pods.
_Preferred Habitat_--Rocky woodlands, hillsides.
_Flowering Season_--March-May.
_Distribution_--New Brunswick to Georgia, and westward a thousand
miles or more.
Rooted in clefts of rock that, therefore, appears to be broken by this
vigorous plant, the saxifrage shows rosettes of fresh green leaves in
earliest spring, and soon whitens with its blossoms the most forbidding
niches. (_Saxum_ = a rock; _frango_ = I break.) At first a small ball of
green buds nestles in the leafy tuffet, then pushes upward on a bare
scape, opening its tiny, white, five-pointed star flowers as it ascends,
until, having reached the allotted height, it scatters them in spreading
clusters that last a fortnight.