has a very similar distribution. The North American genus Heuchera
has sometimes apetalous flowers. Astilbe has 6 species in temperate
Asia and north-eastern North America; A. japonica is commonly
grown in the spring as a pot-plant, and often misnamed Spiraea.
The order is frequently much extended to include other groups of genera differing in habit and more or less in general conformation from those to which the order is here confined, and which are then regarded as forming one of several tribes. Among these is the order Ribesiaceae, comprising one single genus Ribes, to which belong the gooseberry (R. Grossularia) and currants of gardens. These are shrubs with racemes of flowers which have only one whorl of stamens (isostemonous), an inferior unilocular ovary with two parietal placentas, and fruit a berry. Another is the Hydrangeaceae, to which belong Hydrangea (q.v.), Deutzia and Philadelphus, all well known garden plants; P. coronarius is the so-called Syringa or mock-orange. They are shrubs or trees with simple generally opposite leaves, 5-merous flowers with epigynous stamens and a 3- to 5-locular ova .
Escallonia, which represents a small group of genera with leathery gland-dotted leaves, is also often included.
SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga), a genus of plants which gives its
name to the order of which it is a member. There are nearly
200 species distributed in the temperate and arctic parts of the
northern hemisphere, frequently at considerable heights on the
mountains, and also found on the Andes. They are mostly
herbs with perennial rootstocks and leaves in tufts or scattered
on the flower-stalks. The arrangement of the flowers is very
various, as also are the size and colour of the flowers themselves.
They have a flat or more or less cup-shaped receptacle, from the
margin of which spring five sepals, five petals and ten (or rarely
five) stamens. The pistil is often partly adherent to the receptacle,
and is divided above into two styles; the ovules are
numerous, attached to axile placentas; and the seed-vessel is
capsular. Fifteen species are natives of Britain, some alpine
plants of great beauty (S. oppositifolia, S. nivalis, S. aizoides, &c.),
and others, like S. granulata, frequenting meadows and low
ground, while S. tridactylites may be found on almost any dry
wall. S. umbrosa is London Pride or St Patrick's Cabbage, a
common garden plant, a native of the Spanish Peninsula and also
of the mountains of W. and S.W. Ireland. Many species are in
cultivation, including the Bergenias or Megaseas with their
large fleshy leaves and copious panicles of rosy or pink flowers,
the numerous alpine species, such as S. pyramidalis, S. cotyledon,
&c., with tall panicles studded with white flowers, and many
others, most of them adapted for rockwork.
SAXO GRAMMATICUS (c. 1150–c. 1206), Danish historian
and poet, belonged to a family of warriors, his father and grandfather
having served under Valdemar I., king of Denmark
(d. 1182). Brought up for the clerical profession, Saxo entered
the service of Archbishop Absalon about 1180, and remained in
that capacity until the death of Absalon in 1201. It was at the
archbishop's instigation that he began, about 1185, to write the
history of the Danish Christian kings from the time of Sweyn
Astridson (d. 1076), but later Absalon prevailed on him to write
also the history of the earlier heathen times, and to combine both
into a great work, Gesta Danorum, or Historia Danica. The
archbishop died before the work was finished, and therefore the
preface, written about 1208, dedicates the work to his successor
Archbishop Andreas, and to King Valdemar II. Nothing else
is known about Saxo's life and person; a chronicle of 1265 calls
him “ mirae et urbanae eloquentiae clericus ”; and an epitome
of his work from about 1340 describes him as “ egregius
grammaticus, origine Sialandicus.” That he was a native of Zealand
is probably correct, inasmuch as, whereas he often criticizes the
Jutlanders and the Scanians, he frequently praises the Zealanders.
The surname of “ Grammaticus ” is probably of later origin,
scarcely earlier than 1500, apparently owing to a mistake. The
title of “ provost of Röskilde,” given him in the 16th century, is
also probably incorrect, the historian being confounded with an
older contemporary, the provost of the same name. Saxo, from
his apprenticeship as the archbishop’s secretary, had acquired a
brilliant but somewhat euphuistic Latin style, and wrote fine
Latin verses, but otherwise he does not seem to have had any
very great learning or extensive reading. His models of style
were Valerius Maximus, Justin and Martianus Capella, especially
the last. Occasionally he mentions Bede, Dudo of St Quentin
and Paulus Diaconus, but he does not seem to have studied them
or any other historical works thoroughly. His sources are
partly Danish traditions and songs, partly the statements of
Archbishop Absalon, partly the accounts of Icelanders and,
lastly, some few earlier sources, lists of Danish kings and short
chronicles, which furnished him with some reliable chronological
facts. He considered traditions as history, and therefore made it
his chief business to recount and arrange these, and his work
is a loosely connected series of biographies of Danish kings and
heroes.
The first nine books of the Gesta Danorum comprise traditions of kings and heroes of the half-mythical time up to about 950. Here we have traditions about Fredfrode, about Amleth (Hamlet) and Fenge, about Hrolfr Kraki, Hadding, the giant Starkather, Harald Hildetann and Ragnarr Lodbrok. In this earlier history Saxo has also embodied myths of national gods who in tradition had become Danish kings, for instance, Balder and Hother, and of foreign heroes, likewise incorporated in Danish history, as the Gothic Jarmunrik (A.S. Eormenríc), the Anglian Vermund (A.S. Gármund) and Uffe (A.S. Offa), the German Hedin and Hild, and others. Frequently the narrative is interrupted by translations of poems, which Saxo has used as authentic sources, although they are often only a few generations older than himself. In the later books (x.-xvi.) of his work he follows to a greater extent historical accounts, and the more he approaches his own time the fuller and the more trustworthy his relation becomes; especially brilliant is his treatment of the history of King Valdemar and of Absalon. But his patriotism often makes him partial to his countrymen, and his want of critical sense often blinds him to the historical truth.
Saxo's work was widely read during the middle ages, and several extracts of it were made for smaller chronicles. It was published for the first time, from a MS. afterwards lost, in Paris, 1514, by the Danish humanist Christiern Pedersen; this edition was reprinted at Basel, 1534, and at Frankfort, 1576. Of later editions may be mentioned that of Stephen Stephanius (Soro, 1644), the second volume of which contains the little-known, but valuable, Stephanii notae uberiores in historiam Danicam Saxonis Grammatici, and which was reproduced, though without the notes, by C. A. Klotz (Leipzig, 1771); and that of P. E. Müller completed by J. M. Velschow (Copenhagen, 1839–1858). The last complete edition is that of Alfred Holder (Strassburg, 1886), while a large part was edited by G. Waitz in the Mon. Germ. historica, xxix. pp. 43-161 (1892). No complete MS. any longer exists; yet of late small fragments have been found of three MSS. The most remarkable of these is the fragment found at Angers, in France, written in the later part of the 13th century. It is now in the library of Copenhagen.
There are Danish translations by A. G. Vedel (Copenhagen, 1575, and again 1851), and by F. Winkel-Horn (1896–1898). There is an English translation by O. Elton and F. Y. Powell (London, 1894).
See A. Potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi (Berlin, 1896), where full references will be found.
SAXONS, a Teutonic people mentioned for the first time by Ptolemy about the middle of the 2nd century. At that time they are said to have inhabited the neck of the Cimbric peninsula, by which we have probably to understand the modern province of Schleswig, together with three islands lying off its western coast. We next hear of them in connexion with piratical expeditions in the North Sea about the year 286. These raids became more frequent during the 4th century, and at the beginning of the 5th century the northern coast of Gaul and the south-east coast of Britain were known as litora Saxonica, owing either to their liability to the attacks of the Saxons or, as some think, to the establishment of Saxon colonies there. During the same period the Saxons appear to have conquered a considerable portion of north-west Germany. According to their own traditions they landed at Hadeln in the neighbourhood of Cuxhaven and seized the surrounding districts from the Thuringians. It is clear that by the middle of the 4th century they had advanced
