124 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



spreading, lanceolate, acute, twice the sepals, with a short mucro behind the tip. 

 Stamens slightly shorter than the petals, spreading, filaments greenish, anthers 

 reddish-yellow, the epipetalous ones attached ^ way up to the petals. Scales 

 small, quadrate, entire, greenish, translucent. Carpels erect at first, later 

 spreading, greenish-yellow, equalling or shorter tlian the stamens, slender, com- 

 pressed laterally ; styles long, slender, erect, capitellate. 



Flowers late July and early August, after S. kamtschaticum and 

 before S. hyhridum. Hardy. 



The stems begin their axillary branching as early as May, whereas 

 in kamtschaticum, if branches are produced, they mostly arise sub- 

 sequent to the primary flowering in June, and proceed from the lower, 

 not the upper, leaf-axils. In strong plants of S. floriferum the axillary 

 branches may be as many as twenty in number ; in less strong plants 



Fig. 64. — Immature shoot of S. floriferum. x i. 



they are often sub-umbellate, being grouped round the apex of the 

 stem ; in weak plants they may be absent (fig. 64). The flowers have 

 the size and rather greenish-yellow colour of those of hybridum, not 

 the golden-yellow and large size of kamtschaticum. The plant comes 

 true from seed. 



The peculiar branching of the stem which is characteristic of this 

 species is also found, to a less extent, in 5. Yabeamim Makino, a 

 recently published Japanese species of the Aizoon section, not in 

 cultivation, which is described as having "stems often provided with 

 a few sterile branches at the middle portion." {Bot. Mag. , Tokyo, 17, 10.) 



Habitat. — N.E. China. Seed was sent by Mr. Liardet from Wei- 

 hai-Wei in igii, to Kew, where the plant has been grown since without 

 a name. 



To this species may be referred a curious specimen in the British 

 Museum. It is labelled " Chifu. aest. 1872 (F. B. Forbes)," and is 



