SEMPERVTVUM. 



CLASS I.— RHODAXTHAE. 



Flowers red, all their parts in twelves. 



Group I. Ciliata. — Leaves of the ban-en rosettes fringed at the edges 

 only. The rosettes all large and ample, several inches across, 

 with noble leaves of green or violet or glaucous-blue, with a red tip. 



S. tectorum is the common Houseleek, and in foliage as fine as 

 need be. It has darker varieties called S. t. atropurpureum, atrorubens, 

 and atroviolaceum, all sometimes offered as species. It has also, on 

 the Bernina, begotten a hybrid with 8. Wulfeni which is perhaps the 

 most wholly beautiful in foliage of all the large and smooth-rosetted 

 dark Houseleeks. This is S. X Comollii, with very royal rosettes., 

 blending blue and violet in a most wonderful combination of bloomy 

 metallic colouring, darkening outward to the sharp leaf -tips in a deep 

 glaucous-purple that goes of a yet more sombre tone in the winter. 

 Other garden varieties or wild forms of 8. tectorum are sometimes sent 

 out as S. affine, S. beugesiacum (perhaps a species, but close akin), 

 S. Bungeanum, S. grand iflor urn, S. ornatum, S. pallescens (pale green in 

 the leaf and bright pink in the flowers), S. laetevirens, 8. marmoreum 

 from Athos, 8. juratense (quite near to S. tectorum, but a month earlier 

 in the production of smaller flowers), S. brevirameum with notably large 

 rosettes, S. rupestre, and 8. speciosum. All these are very handsome ; 

 all these have the habits and the noble rosettes of the species, and this 

 section of the group. As have also the following, that have no claim 

 to be more than garden forms of the Houseleek : 8. bicolor, S. cupraeum, 

 S t densum, 8. glaucum, 8. pidchrum, S. ma jus, S. tenellum. and 

 S. violaceum — variations whose names explain them. Rather smaller 

 than this should be the rare 8. x Fontanae, being a hybrid between 

 S. arachnoideum and S. tectorum; and 8. x adenotrichum is another 

 hybrid, with dim 8. montanum for its other parent. 



S. Boutignyanum (S. alpinum), with its variety 8. adoxum. the 

 inglorious, comes from the Pyrenees, and has large flowers of pale 

 rose in wide heads of 6 inches or so. S. pyrenaicum is a Pyrenean 

 version, with paler flowers still. 



S. arvernense is taller in the stem, but has the usual large and red- 

 tipped rosette. It belongs to Central France and the Western Alps. 



S. calcareum. — This is one of the most important large plants in 

 the race, and is often offered under the comic name of S. calif ornicum. 

 Xow no Sempervivum exists in America at all ; the race is practically 

 confined to Europe. S. calcareum is singularly beautiful with its large 



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