ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 125 



from Hance's herbarium. It has a straight fasciate stem and numerous 

 axillary branches, some of which bear flowers. The stem is more 

 scabrid than in the living plant, but otherwise the specimen agrees 

 satisfactorily with S. floriferum. Chifu lies only fifty miles from Wei- 

 hai-Wei. 



Named from the abundance of its flowers. 



42. Sedum hybridum Linn. (figs. 545, 65). 



5. hybridum Linn., " Species Plantarum," 431, 1753. Maximowicz in 

 Bull. Acad. Pelersbourg, 29, 147, 1883. Masters in Card. Chron., 

 1878, ii. 463. 



Illustrations. — Reichenbach, " Flor. German.," 23, tab. 64. Nov. Comm. 

 Soc. Scient., GoUingen, 6, tab. 5, 1776. 



Among the broad-leaved, yellow-flowered, hardy Sedums this 

 variable species may be always recognized by its numerous barren 

 stems and creeping habit. Its linear sepals also separate it from all 

 its allies except 5. floriferum. Its style of growth recalls the pink- 

 flowered S. spurium rather than any of the Aizoon group, but, unlike 

 that species, it possesses the thick woody rootstock which is 

 characteristic of its section. It varies considerably in size ; in colour 

 (from light green to dark green flushed with red) ; in size of flower 

 (from f inch to | inch in diameter) , the largest-flowered forms having 

 very broad sepals (| inch wide) and petals {^-^ inch wide) and broad 

 leaves (see fig. 65, upper half) ; and in shape of leaf, the width ranging 

 from one-fourth to three-fourths of the breadth. The narrow-leaved 

 forms closely resemble the broad-leaved form of S. Middendorffianum, 

 but the creeping habit, linear sepals, &c., distinguish the former. 

 The average plant most resembles 5. kamtschaiicum, but in addition 

 to the characters of habit, sepals, and fruit already mentioned, its 

 unbranched flower-stems and smaller leaves and flowers give it a 

 different appearance ; the orange and red tints which so frequently 

 adorn kamtschaiicum are absent, and instead a greenish hue pervades 

 the buds and fading flowers, and the fruit is green. 



Description. — An evergreen perennial, forming a loose mat, with barren 

 and flowering shoots. Rootstock becoming thick and woody. Stems creeping 

 and branching, round, bare; branches ascending, leafy, about 6 inches long. 

 Leaves alternate, glabrous, about i inch long by J to ^ inch wide, oblanceolate 

 to spathulate, coarsely toothed in upper half, entire and tapering in lower 

 half, scarcely stalked, green, teeth often tipped red. Inflorescence a terminal, 

 much branched, leafy, umbellate, flattish cyme about 2 inches across ; bracts 

 resembling the leaves, uppermost very small, entire. Flowers yellow, ^ inch 

 across. Buds oblong, pointed, with greenish ribs and spreading sepals. Sepals 

 green, unequal, linear to oblong, subterete, distant, blunt, persistent in fruit, 

 calyx-tube very short. Petals yellow, twice the sepals, wide-spreading, lanceolate, 

 concave, with a short mucro behind the hooded tip. Stamens f the petals, 

 filaments yellow, anthers orange. Scales small, whitish. Carpels greenish- 

 yellow, with long subulate styles, compressed, green or red, erect in flower and 

 semi-erect in fruit, connate only at the very base. 



Flowers sparingly in May, more abundantly in August and 

 September. Hardy. 



