1870.] HARDY HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 513 



high. The leaves are thick, fleshy, and round, with a few remote 

 teeth, and attached by their centres to the longish stalks. The flowers 

 are greenish yellow in long racemes, and are produced throughout the 

 summer. Native of Britain and Ireland, and "many parts of western 

 Europe. 



Sedum. — This is the most numerous genus in the hardy section of 

 the tribe. There is a large number of the species in cultivation, but 

 they are chiefly confined to botanic gardens, and only a few of the 

 more common are to be found generally in private ones throughout the 

 country. Some are pretty border plants, others are suitable for rock- 

 gardens, and generally for furnishing dry gravelly places with vegeta- 

 tion, and draping stumps, old walls, and ruins. Hardy species only 

 are selected, but there are some tender ones, with peculiar and varie- 

 gated leaves, that are valuable ornaments of the flower-garden ; and 

 some of the hardy ones are not inferior to these for the same purpose, 

 and are becoming popular. 



S. acre — Common Btonecrop. — This is a well-known British plant, 

 abundant in many parts of the country on rocks and dry banks and 

 walls. It forms close masses of weak trailing stems, thickly crowded 

 with bright-green, thick, short, almost globular, leaves. The flower- 

 stems are nearly erect, about 2 inches high ; flowers bright yellow in 

 small crowded cymes. This is an invaluable species for clothing old 

 walls, stones, and dry sandy banks. There is a very pretty variegated 

 form, which in spring assumes the appearance of a carpet of gold when 

 planted in breadth; the tips of the shoots become bright golden yellow 

 as soon as growth begins in spring. It is therefore a valuable plant 

 for spring massing in dry light soil, but does not succeed so well in 

 richer and wetter soils ; it is quite easy, however, on a small scale, to 

 provide a dry enough position for it under any circumstances, and the 

 plant is well worth an effort. Both the species and variety are capital 

 plants for suburban gardens ; and although the species manages to 

 make a tolerable existence on the face of a dry rock, it does not object 

 to richer pabulum, and luxuriates in any soil not absolutely boggy. 

 The variety is found in nurseries under the names S. a. variegatum 

 and S. a. aureum. 



S. album — White Stoiiecrop. — An elegant species, with numerous 

 barren stems matting and creeping on the surface of the ground. The 

 leaves are crowded, fleshy, and cylindrical. The flower-stems are 

 erect, about 6 inches high, bearing pretty corymbs of pure white 

 flowers, in some individuals also pink j they appear in June and July. 

 Native of dry banks, rocks, and walls in Britain and Europe generally. 

 Suitable alike for rockwork and beds and borders in light dry soil, 

 and for clothing gravelly stony banks. 



2 M 



