ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 53 



Description. — An herbaceous perennial, usually ' with stem and ; leaves 

 somewhat rough, Rootstock thickened, elongate, armed with the bases of the 

 old stem, and crowned with conspicuous scale-leaves. Stems arising from the axils 

 of the older scales, erect, slender, round, usually reddish, leafy throughout, 

 6-12 inches long, mostly rough with many transparent bead-like glands. Leaves 

 alternate, sessile, loosely imbricate, flat, slightly fleshy, lanceolate to oblanceolate 

 or obovate or oblong-oblanceolate, acute to apiculate, or obtuse, rounded at 

 base, toothed near apex or entire, finely papillose especially on the edges, | to 

 I inch long, y\ to ^^^ inch broad, dark green, paler below, midrib rather prominent 

 on under-side. Inflorescence leafy, not dense, usually small in cultivation. 

 Buds almost globular. Flowers dark purple, J inch across, pedicels slender, 

 thickened upwards, longer than the flowers. Male flower : — calyx lobes tapering 

 from a broad base, rather acute, fleshy, purple, equalling the green tube ; 

 petals oblong-lanceolate, blunt, patent, twice the calyx, red and yellowish inside 

 (fading purple), deep red-purple outside ; stamens | the petals, ascending, filaments 

 red or purple, anthers deep red ; scales large, broadly cuneate, rounded or 

 emarginate above, recurved, deep purple ; carpels small, short, erect, purplish. 

 Female flower : — sepals, petals, and scales as in male ; stamens absent ; carpels 

 stout, erect, with very short diverging styles. 



Flowers May-June. Hardy. 



Habitat. — Widely spread along the Himalayas, 12,000-17,000 

 feet. 



Very rare in cultivation. Through the good of&ces of the Botanical 

 Survey of India, I received very fine collected rhizomes, a foot in 

 length and nearly 3 inches in girth. Specimens from Edinburgh, 

 labelled S. humile, were received there from Calcutta, and an unnamed 

 plant at Edinburgh, collected by Captain Bailey on the Upper 

 Brahmaputra, proved to be a female 5. himalense — the only one I 

 have seen. 



Named after its habitat. 



13. Sedum fastigiatum Hooker fil, and Thomson (fig. 19). 



5. fastigiatum H. f. and T. in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot., 2, 98, 1858. 

 Clarke in Hooker, "Flor. Brit. India," 2, 419. 



A typical Himalayan Rhodiola, and like most of them variable 

 in flower as regards size and colour of parts. AUied to S. himalense 

 and 5. tibeticum, in both of which, however, the leaf is broader and 

 much thinner in proportion to its length. In S. himalense, moreover, 

 the leaves are usually rough, and in 5. tibeticum usually glaucous ; 

 the small, narrow, fleshy, dark green shining leaves of 5. fastigiatum 

 wiU separate it from either at a glance. The leaves of S. dumulosum 

 Franchet are somewhat similar to those of the present species, 

 but dumulosum has erect petals forming white bell-shaped flowers. 

 S. quadrifidum comes nearest to S. fastigiatum, but has smaller flowers 

 and fruit. 



Description. — An herbaceous glabrous perennial. Caudex elongate, thick, 

 branched. Stems many, from the summit of the branches, simple, erect, leafy, 

 smooth, round, 3-6 inches long, the old ones persistent. Leaves alternate, 

 crowded, linear-oblong to lanceolate, blunt, sessile, dark green, smooth, shining, 

 fleshy, rounded on face, flat or concave on back, \-\ inch long. Inflorescence 

 smallish, compact, bearing leaves on the branches, f to i inch across. Buds 

 ovate, blunt. Flowers ^ inch long, J inch across, exceeding the pedicels, 4- or 

 5-parted, narrow, cup-shaped. Male flower : — sepals linear to long -triangular, 

 blunt, tube short ; petals broadly lanceolate, blunt, ij times the sepals ; stamens 



