Parnassia
(named from Mount Parnassus; called Grass of Parnassus by Dioscorides). Grass of Parnassus. ORD. Saxifrageoe. A genus comprising about twelve species of elegant, hardy, glabrous, erect, perennial herbs, often marsh-loving, inhabiting the temperate and frigid regions of the Northern hemisphere and the mountains of the whole of India. Flowers white or pale yellow, rather large; calyx tube short or very short, free or adnate at the base to the ovary; lobes five, spreading, imbricate; petals five, spreading, marcescent, entire or fimbriate; scape angular, one-flowered. Leaves radical, petiolate, ovate-reniform or oblong; petioles dilated at base. Parnassias succeed in a moist, peaty soil or spongy bog. Propagated by divisions, or by seeds.
P. asarifolia (Asarum-leaved). fl. white; petals five, abruptly contracted into a claw at the base. Summer. l., radical ones kidney-shaped; cauline ones somewhat cordate-orbicular. h. 6in. North America, 1812. An extremely pretty plant, with larger leaves and flowers than the British species. P. caroliniana (Carolinian). fl. white, netted with green or purple, and having a greenish tint; petals almost sessile. July. l., radical ones somewhat orbicular, cauline ones ovate, sessile. h. 6in. North America (in swamps), 1802. (B. M. 1459; R. G. 824.) P. fimbriata (fringed). fl. white; petals obovate, unguiculate, fringed at the base. July, l., radical ones kidney-shaped, cucullate at the base; cauline ones cordate. h. 6in. North America. The leaves of this species are remarkably hollowed out at the base close to the lateral ribs, which are connected with one another by a common base, like the divisions of a pedate leaf, and have, consequently, a very elegant appearance.
P. nubicola (cloud-inhabiting). fl. white, solitary, 1in. to 1 1/2in. in diameter; staminodes yellow, three-lobed; peduncle four-angled, 6in. to 12in. high. Summer. l., radical ones petiolate, elliptic, sub-cordate; cauline ones solitary, sessile, elliptic. Himalayas, 1882. (B. M. 6609.) P. palustris (marsh-loving). Common Grass of Parnassus. fl. white, marked with greenish, pellucid veins; petals almost cordate, cauline ones stem-clasping. h. 6in. Northern hemisphere (Britain). An elegant bog plant. (Sy. En. B. 565.) P. parviflora (small-flowered). fl. white, with pale purple or green netted veins; petals sessile. July and August. l., radical ones ovate, cauline ones sessile. h. 6in. North America, 1820.