2l8 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



(b) Herbs. 



(i) Leaves opposite or whorled. 



Eight of the cultivated Sedums fall in here, belonging either 

 to N. America or E. Asia. The opposite-leaved 5. rubroglaucum 

 and 5. divergens have many points of resemblance, and the three 

 ternate-leaved, species, 5. Chauveaudi, sarmeniosum, and lineare, from 

 the Far East, are allied. S. mexicanum is exceptional among the 

 Seda Genuina in having many-leaved whorls. 



rubroglaucum Praeger Chauveaudi Hamet 



divergens S. Wats. sarmeniosum Bunge 



Slahlii Solms lineare Thunberg 



Zentaro-Tashiroi Makino mexicanum Britton 



100. Sedum rubroglaucum Praeger (fig. 125). 



S. rubroglaucum Praeger in Journ. of BoL, 57, 51, 1919. 



A small plant of the type of 5. spalhulifolium Hooker ; its petals, 

 connate in the lower part, class it with the group of species which 

 Britton places in a separate genus, Gormania. From any other 

 species of that type in cultivation it may be known by its combination 

 of the following characters : stem crimson, leaves glaucous with a 

 depressed apiculus and a clasping petiole, flowers large (| inch across) , 

 yellow, few, petals broad, connate in the lowest fourth. 



Description. — A small, dark-green, glaucous evergreen perennial; much flushed 

 with crimson. Roots fibrous. Barren stems procumbent, bearing a loose rosette 

 of leaves and emitting short, runner-like axillary shoots at first ascending and 

 sparingly leafy, afterwards prostrate and naked save at the tips, where they pro- 

 duce similar rosettes and eventually root ; stems crimson when young, black when 

 old. Flowering stems erect, 2 inches high from the centre of the rosettes. Leaves 

 mostly opposite, sometimes alternate, glaucous, extremely fleshy, shortly stalked, 

 about J inch long, ^ inch broad, t\ inch thick ; lamina obovate, rounded at apex, 

 with a short, depressed apiculus, flat or concave on face, the anterior edges sharply 

 marked and meeting in the depressed apiculus, much rounded on back ; petiole 

 short, widening into a clasping base, not spurred, broad, so that those of an 

 opposite pair of leaves meet or nearly so; leaves of flowering stems similar but 

 narrower. Inflorescence of few, rather drooping flowers, on pedicels nearly as 

 long as the flowers. B«ds ovate, blunt. F/oie/ers f inch across, yellow. Sepals 

 erect, very fleshy, free to the base, ovate, rather acute, green, nearly J inch long. 

 Petals twice the sepals, erect in lower part, spreading above, apiculate or blunt, 

 ovate-oblong in upper half, cuneate in lower part, connate in the basal one- fourth. 

 I inch long. Stamens equalling the petals, filaments green, anthers yellow. 

 Scales much broader than long, yellovidsh. Carpels equalling the stamens, erect, 

 long,''slender, green, tapering to very short styles. 



Flowers September (in 1916, but very possibly the normal flowering 

 time is earlier). 



Habitat. — California : Short Trail, Yosemite Valley. 



This plant was sent fresh as gathered in June 1915, by Professor 

 H. M. Hall, labelled " Sedum obtusatum ov yosemitense," accompanied 

 by S. yosemitense (from Ledge Trail in the same locality). It is quite 

 different from yosemitense, which has green leaves without a clasping 

 base, much smaller flowers, free lanceolate petals, &c. From those 

 species of Gormania which have yellow flowers- it is also easily dis- 



