SAXIFRAGACE.SJ 266 SAXONY Not found in Australia, South Africa, or the South Sea Islands; distributed in most other regions. SAXIFRAGACES, or SAXIFRA- GES), in botany, saxifrages; the typical order of the alliance Saxifragales, herbs often growing in patches. Known genera 19, species 310. (Lindley.) Genera 19, species 250, including the Ribesieae. (Sir Joseph Hooker.) Most of the species are from the North Temperate and Arctic zones. SAXONS, a Germanic people, whose name is usually derived from an old Teu- tonic word sahs, meaning "knife," though some authorities believe it to be another form of Sassen, "The settled people," are first mentioned by Ptolemy as dwelling in the S. of the Cimbrian Peninsula. In the 3d century a "Saxon League" or "Confederation," to which belonged the Cherusci, the Angrivarii, the Chauci, and other tribes, was established on both sides of the estuary of the Elbe and on the islands off the adjacent coast. During the reigns of the Emperors Julian and Valentinian they invaded the Roman ter- ritory; but their piratical descents on the coasts of Britain and Gaul are far more famous. In 287 Carausius, a Belgic admiral in the Roman service, made him- self "Augustus" in Britain by their help ; and about 450 they in conjunction with the Angles established themselves per- manently in the island and founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Before the 5th century they had settled along the North Sea coasts from the Elbe to the Loire, a part of what was later Flanders being called the "Saxon shore." But these Saxon settlements soon became absorbed in the kingdom of the Franks. In Great Britain too there was a Saxon shore with its count. In Roman times the coast districts of Great Britain from Brighton N. to the Wash were called Litus Saxoni- cum, or Saxon shore. These localities were particularly exposed to the attacks of the Saxons from across the North Sea, and were placed under the authority of a special officer, the Count of the Saxon Shore. At home the Old Saxons enlarged their territory by conquest till it em- braced all the lands between the Rhine and Elbe, the North Sea and the Harz Mountains. Along with the Franks they destroyed the kingdom of the Thurin- gians in 531, and obtained possession of the land between the Harz and the river Unstrut ; but this region too was forced to acknowledge the Frankish sovereignty. But the Saxons having thrown off the yoke, wars between the Saxons and the Franks were constant after 719; and the latter after 772 were, under the vig- orous leadership of Charlemagne, gen- erally successful, in spite of the deter- mined opposition offered by Wittekind (or Widukind). The desperate resistance of the Saxons was not finally broken till 804, though Wittekind submitted in 785. After the final submission the conquered people accepted Christianity, having be- fore defended their heathen faith in con- junction with their freedom. By the treaty of Verden (843) the Saxon dis- tricts fell to Austrasia, the nucleus of the German empire. The "Saxons" of Transylvania are not all of pure Saxon descent ; the name is used rather as synon- ymous with "German." To the Celtic Britons the English or Anglo-Saxon in- vaders were known only as Saxons, and Sassenach, or other Celtic form of the word Saxon, is still the name for Eng- lishmen and their language alike in Wales, the Scottish Highlands, and Ire- land. SAXON SWITZERLAND, a name given to part of Saxony, on the Elbe, S. E. of Dresden and bordering on Bo- hemia. It consists of a group of moun- tains of sandstone, with valleys and streams of the most picturesque char- acter, in which isolated masses of sand- stone, large and small, occur in very fan- tastic shapes. It is about 24 miles long and equally wide. SAXONY, a state in the German Re- public, formerly a kingdom, now a re- public; bounded on the N. W., N. and E. by Prussia; S. E. and S. by Bohemia; S. W. by Bavaria; and W. by Reuss, Saxe-Weimar, and Saxe-Altenburg; area, 5,787 square miles. For administrative purposes it is divided into the five dis- tricts of Dresden, Leipsic, Zwickau, Chemnitz, and Bautzen. Pop. about 5,000,000. General Features. — With the exception of a very small portion of the E., which sends its waters to the Baltic, Saxony belongs to the basin of the Elbe, which traverses it in a N. W. direction for about 70 miles. Of its tributaries the most important are the Mulde and the Elster. The surface, though very much broken, may be regarded as an inclined plane, which commences in the S., in the Erzgebirge chain, and slopes toward the N. In the more elevated districts, the scenery is wild, and on either side of the Elbe, from the Bohemian frontier to Pirna, is a remarkable tract which has received the name of the Saxon Switzer- land. On the Prussian frontiers, where the district subsides to its lowest point, the height above the sea is only 250 feet. The loftiest summits are generally com-
