Addisonia - 57 



(Plate 109) 



CRASSULA PORTULACEA 



Tree Crassula 



Native of south Africa 

 Family Crassui^aceae; Stone crop Family 



Crassula portulacea Lam. Encyc. 2: 172. 1786. 



A succulent intricately branched shrub, or sometimes a dwarf 

 tree with a well-defined trunk, up to six feet or more tall. The bark 

 on the old stems is grayish-brown, marked with rings and irregularly 

 shaped figures; the ultimate divisions are yellowish-brown. The 

 sessile opposite fleshy leaves are a rather dark green, at and near the 

 margins marked with dull reddish-brown, and are decussately ar- 

 ranged in two to six pairs at the branchlet-ends; they are obovate, 

 usually more or less inequilateral, obtuse, up to two inches long and 

 one and a quarter inches wide. The flowering stems are pink, arising 

 from the summit of the branchlets, and bear trichotomous cymes of 

 pale rose flowers, the color deepest toward the tips of the petals. 

 The flowers are a half to three quarters of an inch broad, the parts 

 usually in fives; the sepals are very short; the petals are oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, spreading; the stamens are alternate with and 

 shorter than the petals, with deep rose anthers; the pistils are as- 

 cending, white flushed with rose, shorter than the stamens. 



Like all south African plants, this is not hardy in the latitude of 

 New York City, requiring in the winter time the protection of a 

 cool house, where it may be grown with cacti and other succulent 

 plants requiring rather cool night temperatures. Complaints 

 have been received at the New York Botanical Garden that the 

 plant never flowers. This is true of small specimens, but when the 

 plant becomes large and mature it is one of the freest of bloomers, 

 and the large specimen in the collections of the Garden, from which 

 the illustration was prepared, is an attractive object when in full 

 bloom, which occurs usually in January or February. 



In its home it grows usually on hillsides among other shrubs. 

 Its roots are eaten by the Hottentots under the name "T'Karchay." 



The genus Crassula contains about two hundred species, mainly 

 inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope, with a few in tropical 

 Africa, Australia, Madagascar, and China. 



George V. Nash. 



Explanation op Pirate. Fig, 1. — Flowering stem. Fig. 2. — Flower, cut 

 open, X 2. 



