24 



purple, transparent, in terminal bunches. From the peculiar 

 report made by the flowers when cracked or compressed by the 

 fingers has arisen the local name " floppers. " 



This plant was first introduced in 1813, and has now spread 

 in profusion all over the islands; not an old wall, crevice, shady 

 glen or stony glade where it is not abundant. A peculiarity it 

 possesses is that the leaves placed in damp cloth, or even pin- 

 ned up in a damp place, produce rootlets and young plants at 

 the crenatures or marginal creases, the same thing will happen 

 if a leaf is suspended from a piece of thread or string in the 

 air. Seeds seldom mature, owing probably to the easy method 

 of leaf propogation. So abundant is the plant everywhere 

 that it is bound to attract attention. Perennial. Flowers from 

 January to June with an occasional flower all through the year. 



Sedum L/inn. (stonecrop.) Although called by Lefroy a 

 garden plant, yet it is now spreading freely and may be found 

 sparingly on the wall-faces of road-cuttings around Hamilton, 

 and in Warwick. It is frequently placed on graves, whence it 

 has probably spread. A free growth of it faces the Cathedral 

 growing among the sandstone brought for that building from 

 Nova Scotia and may have been introduced in that spot with 

 the stone It is a procumbent, fleshj-leaved plant, one or two 

 inches high, leaves bright green, Overlapping slightl3\ Flowers 

 bright, of a star-like shape; yellow. It is not unlike some of 

 the northern mosses in growth. Perennial. June to Jul}'. 



[Another plant, not defined but a species or variety of stone- 

 crop, somewhat similar to the preceding, but with trailing 

 short stems some two or three inches long anc^. withered half 

 their length is to be found on the North shore rocks back of 

 Mount L<'t-gton and at Spanish Point. It seems to me if not a 

 separate species to be a variety. I/eaves clearer than ordinary 

 stonecrop. Perennial.] 



Natural Order, Umbelliferae. 



Hydrocotyle Umbellata. I^inn. (penny wort). A plant 

 with stem creeping and rooting in soft marsh earth, with clus- 

 ters of roundish leaves, one to two inches in diameter. Flowers 



