244 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



115. Sedum humifusum Rose (fig. 141). 



5. humifusum Rose in " Contrib. U.S. Nat. Herb.," 13,298, 1911. 



Illustration. — Loc. cit., pi. 55 (photo). 



A delightful tiny species forming a fresh green, moss-like mat, 

 and easily recognized by its strongly ciliate leaves and solitary star- 

 like yellow flowers. In appearance nearest to S. compactum, but 

 this has white sub-globular flowers and smooth leaves. 



Description. — A minute evergreen mat-forming perennial. Marginal shoots 

 creeping, somewhat elongate (up to i inch), the others more or less erect and 

 forming tiny rosettes like those of a Sempervivum, -j'g- inch across. The stems 

 produce continually short axillary branches from about \ inch back from the 

 growing point. Leaves closely imbricate, obovate, flattened, fleshy, strongly 

 ciliate, with a little tuft of radiating hairs at the apex ; old leaves reddish. 



xl 



Fig. 141. — 5. humifusum Rose. 



Flower stems reddish, J to | inch long, slender, with a few leaves . Flowers solitary, 

 terminal, f inch across. Sepals green, ovate, very fleshy, ciliate, leaf-like, one- 

 half the petals. Petals bright yellow, ovate, acute, spreading widely. Stamens 

 yellow, spreading, equalling the carpels. Scales small, cuneate, orange-yellow. 

 Carpels erect, yellow, equalling the stamens. 



Flowers April (gentle heat) ; June (cold frame). Not hardy. 



Habitat. — Queretaro, Mexico. 



Received from Washington, also from Upsala (whence it came 

 from Darmstadt). I have seen it at Edinburgh and Dresden, and it 

 was shown at the Royal Horticultural Society in July 1916. 



The name humifusum (= spread over the ground) well describes 

 its habit. 



116. Sedum cupressoides Hemsley (fig. 142). 



5. cupressoides Hemsley, " Diagnoses Plant. Nov.," 1, 11, 1878. 

 Hemsley, " Biol. Centr. Amer., Botany," 1, 393. " N. Amer. 

 Flora," 22, 63. 



Illustration. — "Biol. Centr. Amer., Bot.," pi. 21. 



A most distinct and interesting species, with the peculiar Cupressus 

 type of foliage (from which it gains its name) that is met with in 

 xerophilous forms of various genera, e.g., Veronica and Crassula. 

 The flowers, which are bright yellow, were first described as rose- 



