2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



but the majority are stable and distinct plants recognizable at a glance, 

 and more easily diagnosed than, for instance, the Saxifrages, which 

 nevertheless, in gardens, are usuaDy more correctly named. 



The confusion among the Sedums appears to be due mainly to 

 the fact that some of them are rampant growers which invade the 

 territory of neighbouring plants and overwhelm them. In nurseries 

 this undoubtedly leads to the intruders being sent out sometimes 

 under the names of the species which they have ousted. The smallest 

 scrap of many of these plants — in many cases single leaves — will take 

 root and grow, and thus pieces accidentally dropped or carried by 

 wind or other agencies may establish the species at a distance from 

 the parent. Again, some of the species of the rupestre group, notably 

 S. altissimum and S. Douglasii, have a habit of dropping in autumn 

 numerous short barren shoots, which are rolled about by wind and 

 so on, and take root wherever they find a refuge. There is little doubt 

 that these facts go far to account for the numerous names under 

 which common free-growing Sedums, such as album, acre, sexangulare, 

 reflexum, rupestre, anopetalum, altissimum, and spurium are found 

 in gardens. But a large number of misnomers are due to mere care- 

 lessness. 



Another regrettable feature as regards the Sedums is the number 

 of nomina nuda — names which belong to no described species — ^which 

 are found in connexion with them. Many nurser5mien's catalogues 

 are full of such names. Some are clearly perversions, due to 

 carelessness, of well-known names — such, for instance, are crimea- 

 lense for himalense, and glaciate for gracile ; but the majority seem 

 to be deliberate unlicensed christenings. I have given elsewhere * 

 a list of such of these as I have encountered — and suffered from — 

 and it is to be hoped that they will disappear from our catalogues. 

 Many of them have not even the merit of being applied consistently 

 to any one species. 



Another cause of misnaming among the Sedums is the fact that, 

 like most succulents, these plants dry very badly, often losing all 

 their leaves in the process, and unless killed with boiling water con- 

 tinuing to grow for weeks while being pressed ; herbarium material 

 is thus generally poor and unsatisfactory, often almost useless for 

 comparison with the living plants, and identification is rendered 

 correspondingly difficult. Figures of the species thus assume a special 

 value, and many of the Sedums found in cultivation have never been 

 drawn, while figures of many others are found only in pubhcations 

 inaccessible to the majority of gardeners. For this reason I have 

 been at pains to have a drawing made by Miss Eileen Barnes of every 

 species of which I could obtain fresh material. The descriptions 

 likewise have in every instance where fresh material could be obtained 

 been taken from the plants themselves, and checked with the 

 descriptions given by the original describer and by leading authorities. 



* Gardeners' Chronicle, 3rd Ser., 56, 334, 1914. 



