Saxifrageae
A natural order of trees, shrubs, or herbs, of variable habit, inhabiting temperate and frigid regions, rare in the tropics. Flowers hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual or polygamo-dioecious; calyx five parted, rarely four to twelve-parted, free or adnate with the ovary, the lobes valvate or imbricated; petals generally four or five, rarely wanting, perigynous, rarely epigynous, very rarely hypogynous, often small, imbricated or valvate; stamens as many, or twice as many, as the petals, rarely indefinite, erect or spreading; filaments free; anthers usually didynamous. Fruit capsular or baccate, rarely follicular, very rarely nut-like. The useful properties of Saxifrageae are unimportant. The order is divided, by Bentham and Hooker, into six tribes: Cunonieae, Escallonieae, Francoeae, Hydrangeae, Ribesieae, and Saxifrageae proper. It embraces about seventy-five genera, and 540 species. Well-known examples are: Astilbe, Cunonia, Escallonia, Francoa, Hydrangea, Ribes, and Saxifraga.