158 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



3. COTYLEDON ORBICULATA L.* 



The accompanying plate of what seems to be a form of 

 this species is from living material received from Mr. 

 C. E. Orcutt. 



Cotyledon orbiculata is one of the representatives of the 

 true Cotyledons of Africa, characterized by having the 

 flowers on the numerical plan of 5, w r ith a strongly gam- 

 opetalous corolla much longer than the calyx and with 

 recurved lobes, and ten stamens inserted low in its throat. 

 It is said to have been introduced into Europe in 1690, but, 

 like many of the old fashioned succulents of decorative 

 value, it is more frequently found in the hands of amateurs 

 than dealers. It is a perennial shrub with a fleshy stem 

 about three-quarters of an inch thick, and a span or two 

 high, bearing large half elliptical leaf scars each marked 

 by three rather large bundle scars, and a tuft of about 

 four pairs of ascending spatulate entire shortly acuminate 

 very fleshy leaves about 3 inches long, more or less closely 

 dotted with corky points, the margins of the leaves being 

 frequently somewhat rolled backwards. The upper part of 

 the stem, the leaves and the inflorescence, are densely coated 

 with white. 



u. 



* The flowers are borne on a stout naked peduncle about a 

 span high, bearing a few caducous bracts, and subdichoto- 



mously branched above, the branches recurved and the ulti- 

 mate peduncles, which are somewhat over a half inch long, 

 pendent, so that the flowers hang nearly vertically. The 

 calyx is short, with deltoid subacuminate segments about 

 an eighth of an inch long, more or less tinged with red. 

 The corolla is about an inch long when fully expanded, the 

 recurved lobes being about half an inch in length, and is 

 of a delicate flesh color shaded at times with darker red or 



* Linnaeus, Species Plantarum, 1753, 429; DC. Plantes Grasses, ii 



pi. 76; Curt. Bot. Mag. ix. pi. 321; Don, Hist. Dichlamyd. Plants, iii 

 100. 



