Classification of Plants 



305 



would fear to tread if they but knew the doom awaiting them. 

 Another still smaller insect lives within the flower and pays for 

 its food by setting off a little spring in the hinged stamen which 

 flies up and scatters the pollen. 



Order CRASSULACEiE. 



Flowers perfect, regular. Sepals and petals 4-7. Petals 

 separate or united. Stamens as many or twice as many as 

 the petals. When more than one whorl, the outer are op- 

 posite the petals, obdiplostemonous. Carpels separate, as 

 many as the petals, with a honey gland at the base of each. 

 Fruit a group of follicles. Flowers in cymes. The plants are 

 mostly herbs or half shrubs, living in hot, dry climates with 

 the necessary adaptation for such situations. Water is stored 

 in the stems and leaves. The leaves are often packed closely, 

 as in Crassula pyramidalis, L. (p, 106), and have a waxy, or a 

 lime-encrusted surface. The lime attracts and retains moisture. 



A. Stamens as many as the 

 petals. 



Grammanthes. — A small 

 annual growing in sandy soil, 

 with orange or cream - white 

 flowers commonly marked with 

 a V-shaped dark spot on each 

 petal. Stems wiry, with distant 

 pairs of leaves. 



Rochea. — Corolla gamo- 

 petalous. A half shrub with 

 handsome flowers, crimson, 

 white, or yellow. Stamens 

 borne on the corolla tube. 

 Leaves opposite, sheathing or 

 joined at base. Four species. 

 Western. 



Crassula. — Corolla polypetalous. Shrubby or herbaceous 

 plants, with white, red, or yellow flowers. Flowers smaller 

 than in Rochea, arranged in cymes. Leaves usually opposite 



20 



Fig. 277. — Crassula arborescens, 

 Willd. (From "Botanical Maga- 

 zine".) 



