PLATE LIll. 



1. SEMPERVIVUM AKACHNOIDEUM. 



COBWEB HOUSELEEK. 



This genus contains plants of the succulent, hardy., herbaceous, 

 evergreen, and shrubby perenial kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Dodecandria Poli/giiiia, (Dode- 

 cagynia,) and ranks in the natural order of Succulentce. . : ■ . 



The characters are: that the calyx is a six to twelve-parted pe- 

 rianth, concave, acute, permanent : the corolla has six to twelve 

 petals, oblong, lanceolate, acute, concave, a little bigger than the 

 calyx; the stamina have from six to twelve filaments (or more), su- 

 bulate-slender: anthers roundish : the pistillum Irom six to twelve 

 germs, in a ring, erect; ending in as many spreading styles: stigmas 

 acute. ' ' 



The species cultivated arc: 1. S. tcctontm. Common Ilouseleek ; 

 Q,. S. globiferum. Globular Ilouseleek; 3. S. arachiioidewn. Cobweb 

 Houseleek; 4. S. montannm. Mountain Ilouseleek; 5. S. arhoreumi 

 Tree Houseleek; 6. Canarknse, Canary Ilouseleek. 



The first has a perennial fibrous root: the root-leaves in form of 

 a full-blown double-rose, sessile, wedge-shaped or obovate, somewhat 

 more than an inch long, very tleshy, thick, flat above, a little con- 

 vex beneath, keeled and M'hitish, smooth on both sides, the edges 

 fringed with hairs and generally tinged with red, pointed, upright 

 gradually smaller inwards: offsets on long footstalks, globular, the 

 size of a pigeon's egg or larger, composed of erect leaves lying over 

 each other: the flowering-stem upriglit, from nine inches to a foot 

 in height, round, fleshy, pubescent, having alternate, lanceolate, 

 thinner leaves on it, of a reddish colour, at top branched and form- 



