194 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



forty years. In a cold frame the plant is deciduous ; in gentle heat 

 sub-evergreen. 



I received it from New York, Upsala, Paris, Berlin, La Mortola, and 

 Kew. 



The name has reference to its very acute petals. 



{b) Herbs. 

 (i) Leaves flat. 



Of the six species placed here, the first four belong to the well- 

 marked group Involucrata of Maximowicz, confined, except for the 

 Chinese S. Baileyi, to the Caucasus and Asia Minor. They are creeping 

 perennials with opposite leaves, which are mostly comparatively large. 

 While the species in cultivation all have red flowers, white blossoms 

 are found in some of the other species. 



The remaining two species are Mexican plants without affinity with 

 each other or with the preceding. 



spurium M.B. Sievenianum Rouy and Camus. 



sioloniferum S. T. Gmel. rhodocarpum Rose. 



proponiicum Aznavour. longipes Rose. 



86. Sedum spurium M.B. (fig. no). 



5. spurium Marschall von Bieberstein, "Flor. Taurico-Caucas.," 1, 

 352, 1808. Boissier, "Flor. Orient.," 2, 778. Hamet in Trd. 

 Bot. Sada (Tiflis), 8, part iii. 11. 



Synonyms. — 5. sioloniferum of many authors (not of S. T. Gmelin, see p. 196). 

 S, portulacoides of gardens (not of Wuldenow, which = ternatum, see p. 159). 

 S. oppositifolium Sims, Bot. Mag., pi. 1807. 



Illustrations. — Reichenbach, " Flor. German.," 23, tab. 46. Bot. Mag., 

 loc. cit. (white form), and pL 2370. Revue Horticole, 1891, 523, fig. 137. (All 

 rather poor.) " Gartenflora," tab. 818 (good I). 



Its creeping habit and opposite pairs of leaves, which are wedge- 

 shaped below and rounded and bluntly toothed in upper half, about f 

 as broad as long, and fringed with hairs, will always distinguish this 

 species. Its ally, 5. sioloniferum, may be separated easily by its smaller, 

 more rhomboidal leaves of a hghter green and not margined with hairs, 

 slenderer growth, bright-red stem, and especially by its flowers, which 

 open widely like a star and are borne on a small lax inflorescence, while 

 those of spurium are larger with semi-erect petals, and form a dense, 

 fiat inflorescence (compare figures no and in). 



Description. — A sub-evergreen perennial, forming a large mat. Stems 

 creeping, round, rough with annular leaf-scars, finely hairy, with many leafy 

 ascending branches ; flowering stems reddish, about 6 inches high ; barren stems 

 shorter with more crowded leaves. Leaves opposite, about i inch long, f 

 broad, cuneiform-obovate, crenate-serrate in upper half, cuneate in lower half, 

 shortly stalked, fringed with hyaline hairs, imbricated on the barren shoots, 

 dark green. Inflorescence a flat, dense, terminal leafy umbellate cyme, of about 

 4 forked branches with flowers in the forks, concave in fruit, uppermost bracts 

 oblanceolate. Buds ovate-lanceolate, very acute, ribbed. Flowers \ inch long, 

 sessile, or lowest short-stalked, normally pink. Sepals narrow, slightly tapering to 



