196 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ferum S. T. Gmelin, and the latter name, being the older, was applied 

 to it by many writers. Among the names under which it is found in 

 cultivation at present are altaicum, Braunii, Brownii, calabricum, 

 coccineum, Comolli, hybridum, involucraium, lividum, Middendorffianum, 

 mirdbile, monregalense, pallidum, oreganum, pofulifolium, portulacoides, 

 pulchellum, pulchrum, sarmeniosum, undulaium, Wallichianum. This 

 list well exemplifies the appalling state of confusion that exists among 

 the cultivated Sedums. There is little excuse in this case, for the plant 

 varies but little, and is easily recognizable even when not in flower. 



The only variation of note is in the colour of the flowers, which, 

 normally pinkish, varies from white to deep crimson (var. splendens of 

 gardens) — the latter a very fine form, which is well illustrated in Kegel's 

 " Gartenflora," tab. 818. 



87. Sedum stoloniferum S. T. Gmelin (fig. iii). 



S. stoloniferum S. T. Gmelin, "Reise," 3, 311, 1774. Boissier, " Flor. 

 Orient.," 2, 779. Hamet in Trd. Bot. Sada (Tiflis), 8, part iii. 8. 

 Not S. stoloniferum of Masters in Gard. Chron., 1878, ii. 590, and 

 of many other authors, which = S. spurium, M.B. (see p. 194). 



Illustration. — S. T. Gmelin, loc. cit., tab. 35, fig. 2 (poor). 



This Caucasian plant has been confused with its ally S. spurium, 

 from which it is quite different. The two, which belong to a well- 

 marked group almost confined to the Caucasus and Asia Minor, are 

 distinct from all other cultivated Sedums in their creeping habit, broad 

 leaves in opposite pairs, and pink flowers. The two are easily sepa- 

 rated, and the chief differences between them are given under 5. spurium 

 on p. 194. 



Description. — A semi-evergreen, creeping, glabrous perennial, forming a 

 mat. Roots fibrous. Stems creeping, red, round, striate, rather rough, with 

 annular leaf scars ; branches many, ascending, the flowering shoots 6 inches 

 high, the barren ones much shorter. Leaves opposite, numerous, bright green, 

 loosely imbricate, rhomboid-spathulate, blunt, stalked, obscurely crenate in 

 upper half, entire and tapering in lower half, margined with a narrow border of 

 hyaline pimples, i inch long by | inch broad, pale below ; young leaves with 

 fine pellucid dots ; the leaves of the barren and flowering shoots similar, the 

 latter more distant. Inflorescence a lax, leafy cyme of three wide-spreading 

 branches which are often forked, with flowers in the forks. Buds ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute. Flowers i inch across, subsessile. Sepals linear, non- 

 contiguous, blunt, green, separate nearly to the base. Petals rose, narrowly 

 lanceolate, acute, edges incurved, wide-spreading, thrice the sepals. Stamens 

 f the petals, filaments rose, anthers bright red. Scales small, reddish, narrower 

 above, emarginate. Carpels spreading, greenish pink, slightly shorter than 

 the stamens, compressed ; in fruit patent, forming, with the persistent sepaJs, 

 a ten-rayed star. 



Flowers June-July. Hardy. 



Habitat. — Asia Minor, Caucasus, Syria, Persia. 



S. stoloniferum is rare in cultivation, though it grows very freely, 

 and in my garden sows itself more than any other Sedum. I have seen 

 it in the Botanic Gardens at Kew and Dresden ; it came to me from 

 Wisley as 5. involucratum (an allied Caucasian plant not in cultivation). 



