THE GENUS SEDUM 271 



8. sexangulare L. is noted as " naturalized in some places in 

 England," and 8. rupestre L. is similarly regarded, though " possibly 

 native in the west." Mr. Murray (Fl. Somerset, 145) notes the 

 abundance of the former on walls and banks near villages in that 

 county, but says it has " no claim to be considered a native plant, 

 and is not even thoroughly naturalized"; 8. rupestre, however, he 

 regards as native on cliffs and in woods. 



Mr. Praeger hardly does justice to the distribution of S. reflexion L. 

 in Britain when he limits it to " old walls and occasionally on rocks " ; 

 it sometimes occurs in quantity on hedgebanks and roadsides at some 

 considerable distance from gardens, though it doubtless originated 

 from them. Like the equally commonly cultivated 8. spurium, this 

 species has received an astonishing number of names : Mr. Praeger 

 quotes fourteen as " some of those under which 8. reflexion arrived 

 from reputable sources " and a still longer list of described varieties : 

 " a series such as that in my garden disillusions one as to the value of 

 these, except so far as, in the native state, they may represent local 

 races and be of interest geographically" (p. 270). " Var. albescens 

 Ha worth (lie vis. Succ. 28), which figures in British floras, is described 

 as having the leaves glaucous, those of the flowering shoots not re- 

 flexed, plant smaller and leaves more slender, and flowers pale yellow. 

 In the last character alone does it seem to differ from all of my 

 garden forms, many of which showed some of these characters, and 

 several all of them except the last." 



8. villosnm L. " is very exceptional among Sedums in inhabiting 

 damp ground : in the Botanic Garden at Leipzig, it maintains itself 

 in marshy soil on the edge of tanks used for aquatic plants. . . . 

 According to Werner, the plant is a partial carnivore, capturing 

 insects by means of its glandular hairs " (p. 302). 



The novelties described are few, Mr. Praeger's new species, as has 

 already been mentioned, having been described in this Journal : 

 as to these, readers may like to make the following corrections : 

 8. pyramidale (J. Bot. 1917, 42) — a name admirably descriptive of 

 this remarkable species — proves to be synonymous with S, GJwneti 

 Leveille (1908) ; 8. triphyllum (J. Bot. 1919, 54) and 8. Mairei 

 (to in. eit., 53) give way respectively to the previously published 

 $. Chauveaudii and 8. Someri, both of Hamet ; the name 8. Coopcri 

 (torn, cit., 49) proved to be preoccupied, and for this 8. bhutanense 

 is substituted. There are several new varieties and two or three new 

 combinations. 



Looking through the pages, we find many notes, which, did space 

 allow, we should like to transcribe. It is interesting to know 

 that it was the late Canon Ellacombe, who is commemorated in 

 8. JEllaconibianwm, who first urged Mr. Praeger to undertake a revi- 

 sion of the cultivated Sedums. The 8. Praegerianum, " a remarkable 

 plant, unlike any other species in cultivation," having a stemless 

 rosette of leaves and radiating decumbent flower-stems, " was raised 

 at Edinburgh in 1913 from a pinch of seed taken from a dried speci- 

 men just received into the Herbarium, obtained by a native collector 

 in Tibet at 12,000 feet elevation " (p. 73). 



The paper is well printed and fully indexed. We are glad to note 

 that the principal reference to each species is printed in black type. 



