564 SEDUM. [CLASS X. ORDER IV. 



Suffolk, Peterborough, Wich Cliffs, Somerset.— 3/r. Christy. Forfar 

 and Glammis, Scotland.— Mr. G. Don. 

 Perennial ; flowering in July. 



The Stonecvops of this section are extremely pretty ornamental 

 plants, decorating rocks, old walls, and ruins, with their numerous 

 star-like flowers, flourishing and adding beauty to those situations 

 where either from the sterility ot the soil or the nakedness of the 

 position, vegetables are liable to great vicissitudes as to the supply of 

 moisture which they may obtain ; but these little plants are provided 

 by the foreknowledge of Him who spake, " and it was so," with the 

 means of fulfilling their appointed functions under all the contingencies 

 to which they may be exposed. 



h. Leaves rounded. Flowers yellow. 



6. S. a'cre, Linn. (Fig. 756.) Biting Stonecrop^ or Wall Pepper. 

 Stem procumbent at the base and rooting; leaves alternate, fleshy, 

 ovate, acute at the back, sessile, spurred at the base ; cymes smooth, 

 leafy ; petals lanceolate, twice as long as the calyx segments. 



English Botany, t. 839.— English Flora, vol. ii. p. 318.— Hooker, 

 British Flora, vol. i. p. 213.— Lindley, Synopsis, p. 65. 



Root of branched fibres. Stem roundish, smooth, succulent, tender, 

 much branched in a tufted manner, procumbent and rooting at the 

 base, from two to three inches high, leafy, the barren branches densely 

 crowded with imbricated leaves, the stems alternate and distant. 

 Leaves a cheerful green, fleshy, very succulent, ovate, obtuse, acutely 

 convex at the back, flattened above, and spurred at the base. Jnjlo- 

 rescence a two or three branched cymose panicle, of more or less 

 numerous yellow Jtowers^ on short stalks, accompanied with a bractea 

 at the base. Calyx of five lanceolate segments. Petals lanceolate, 

 with a tapering point, twice as long as the calyx. Stamens on slender 

 filaments^ shorter than the petals. Anthers oblong, notched, orange 

 colour. Style with small obtuse stigma. Capsule pale, thin, mem- 

 branous. 



Habitat.— 0\^ walls, ruins, roofs, and dry places; frequent. 



Perennial ; flowering in June and July. 



This plant in a recent state is extremely pungent and bitter; hence 

 it has obtained the name of Wall Pepper, and when taken in large 

 doses acts powerfully both as an emetic and cathartic, and when 

 bruised and applied to the skin, it causes inflammation, blisters, and 

 frequently erosions. Bruised and boiled in milk, it has been thought 

 of great use in scorbutic diseases; and cancerous affections are said to 

 have been cured by its use. It forms an useful stimulating poultice 

 to indolent ulcers, and was esteemed in the cure of intermittent fevers. 

 Jt is an extremely pretty cheerful looking plant, growing in dense 

 tufts on barren rocks or ruined buildings, walls, &c., and not less 

 so on artificial rock work, dry banks, &c. 



