IRISH GARDENING 



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on long stalks and round clusters of pink flowers. 

 S. primuloides is a rather recent Chinese intro- 

 duction, with erect branching perennial stems a 

 few inches high, crowned in summer with small 

 broad-pointed leaves. The flowers are white, 

 but it seems a shy bloomer. S. oktusatum is a 

 good plant, easily known by its leaves. These 

 and the whole plant are of the type of S. album, 

 but the leaves widen to the rounded end so that 

 they are pear-shaped in outline. The flowers are 

 bright yellow, and the whole plant usually 

 suffused with red. S. spathulifolium is of a more 

 upright type, with slightly branching stems and 

 glaucous diamond-shaped leaves suffused with 

 red. The leaves are crowded above so as to form 

 a loose flat rosette, and the flowers are yellow. 

 The plant which is usually called S. sarmentosum, 

 though it is not that species, is distinguished by 



leaves), dasyphyllum and brevifolium (glaucous 

 leaves). 



Smalt, carpeters. — Album and anglicum 

 (green leaves, white flowers), murale (reddish 

 leaves, pinkish flowers), sexangulare and acre 

 (bright green leaves, yellow flowers). 



Medium size. — Ewersii. Sieboldii, oppositi- 

 folium (all pink or purple flowered), spurium, 

 splendens (deep red flowers), kamtscnaticum 

 (orange-yellow flowers). S. spurium is the only 

 one of these which spreads much. 



Large, mostly upright. — Spectabile, tele- 

 phium (red or purplish flowers): Maximo wiczii, 

 Rhodiola, asiaticum (yellow flowers) : populi- 

 folium (pink flowers, shrubby), dendroideum, 

 the largest of all (shrubby, yellow flowers). 



Best Yellows. — Kamtscnaticum, Maximo- 

 wiczii, acre, sexangulare, obtusatum. 



The Rose Root (Sedum roseum) 7 at home, Clare Island, Co. Mayo. 



its long prostate shoots, which grow a foot or so 

 in the year, and bear throughout their length 

 flat broadly lanceolate leaves. The flowers are 

 yellow, on short upright stems. Lastly, we have 

 two Sedums of quite different appearance from 

 all the others, which even an experienced botanist, 

 seeing them for the first time, would un- 

 hesitatingly call Sempervivums, so closely does 

 their growth form resemble that of the well- 

 known Houseleeks. These are S. Sempervivum, 

 which has reddish leaves edged with green and 

 striking red flowers, and S. pilosum, in which the 

 leaves are crowded, incurved and densely hairy, 

 producing a ball-like growth. The flowers are 

 pretty, pinkish in colour. Unfortunately neither 

 of these remarkable plants is perennial ; they die 

 after flowering. 



I now give, in conclusion, a selection of Sedums 

 under different heads, mentioning in each case 

 a few of the best flowering, most interesting, or 

 most useful species for the purpose in question. 



Minute Species. — Lydium (bright green 



Best Whites or Pinks. — Album, murale, 

 glaucum. pulchellum (all dwarf creeping) ; populi- 

 folium, spectabile (1 foot). 



Best reds. — Spurium splendens (creeping), 

 Ewersii, Sieboldii (low arching) ; telephium, 

 trifidum (erect, | to 2 feet). 



Blue. — S. cceruleum. 



Glaucous leaved. — Brevifolium, glaucum, 

 dasyphyllum, spathulifolium (all dwarf) ; 

 Ewersii, Sieboldii (medium): roseum (lar; 



A considerable number of hardy Sedums which 

 are in cultivation still remain unmentioned in this 

 article, but I have already taxed the patience of 

 my readers ; what has been said will show the 

 extent of the genus and give an idea of the 

 character of the leading species, and may 

 possibly help some rock-gardeners in choosing 

 species to grow, or in naming plants already in 

 their gardens — though to render effective aid in 

 the latter direction much fuller treatment would 

 be necessary. 



