96 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



opposite leaves. A study of the growing plant shows that it is certainly 

 a form of verticillatum, with which it agrees in all points save its smaller 

 size and the arrangement of its leaves ; the flowers, leaves, colour, and 

 habit are those of verticillatum. Young and weak plants of S. verti- 

 cillatum often have their leaves opposite, and in this dwarf form this 

 immature character seems perpetuated. Doubtless a wild Japanese 

 form, but so far known only from gardens in Japan and England. 



Series II. HUMILICAULES. 



Group I. Arcuatae. 



30. Sedum Ewersii Ledebour (fig. 45). 



S. Ewersii Ledebour "Flora Altaica," 2, 191, 1830. Maximowicz in 

 Bull. Acad. Petersbourg, 29, 136. Masters in Gard. Chron., 1878, 

 ii. 591. Hooker fil. and Thomson in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot., 2, 

 102. Clarke in Hooker "Flor. Brit. India," 2, 421. 



Illustrations. — Ledebour, " Icones Plant. Ross.," tab. 58. Regel, " Garten- 

 flora," tab. 295. Wooster. "Alpine Plants," 1, pi. 30. Trans. Russian Hort. 

 Soc, i860, tab. 21. 



A well-known species, long in cultivation, distinguished among the 



purple-flowered Sedums by its semi-trailing habit and opposite pairs 



of entire clasping leaves. Unlike most of the Telephium section, the 



new stems arise, not from buds at the base of the old stem, but from the 



lower part of the stems themselves, so that eventually a much-branched, 



low twiggy mass is formed, which is bare in winter. 



Description. — A glaucous herbaceous perennial, dying back in winter to a 

 short spreading, much branched twiggy rootstock. Stems round, smooth, un- 

 branched, the barren ones spreading, the flowering ones longer (6-12 inches) 

 ascending or spreading. Leaves sub-opposite, entire or faintly toothed, fleshy, 

 glaucous, sessile, about f inch long by | inch broad, those of the barren shoots 

 and the lower ones of the flowering shoots orbicular to broadly ovate or obovate, 

 rounded and not clasping at the base, longer than the intemodes ; upper leaves 

 of the flowering shoots cordate and clasping, shorter than the internodes. In- 

 florescence a dense terminal umbellate cyme, 1-2 inches across, surface convex. 

 Buds ovoid, bluntly pointed. Flowers purplish pink, nearly \ inch across, as 

 long as the pedicels. Sepals linear-lanceolate, separate nearly to the base, 

 glaucous. Petals ovate-lanceolate, acute, purplish pink, more than twice the 

 sepals, wide-spreading, the nerve on back green near the tip. Stamens shorter 

 than the petals, filaments pink, anthers dark purple. Scales whitish or yellowish, 

 oblong, notched. Carpels erect, pink, shorter than the stamens, erect in fruit. 



Flowers August-September. Hardy. 



Habitat.— Western Himalayas to the Altai, Soongar, and 

 Mongolia. 



Var. homophyllum var. no v.* (fig. 46). 



Much smaller than the type. Stems 2-3 inches long, flowering ones but little 

 longer than the barren ones ; shoots dying back less far in proportion during 

 winter and producing many very short, small shoots below. Leaves of both 



* Quam typo multo minus. Caules 5-8 cm. longi ; caules floriferi caules 

 steriles parum superantes. Folia caulium sterilium et floriferorum Integra, 

 obovata, nee amplexicaulia, 13-16 mm. longa, 6-9 mm. lata, quam in typo 

 glauciora. Folia emarcida persistentia. Pedicelli quam in typo longiores, 

 graciliores ; carpella paullum majora, stamina aequantia. 



