ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 295 



Flowers early June. Hardy. 



Habitat. — Southern Europe, from S.E. France to Crete. 



Rare in cultivation. Has long maintained itself in the gardens of 

 the late Canon Ellacombe, and of Mr. E. A. Bowles. Sent to Wisley 

 by Mr. Correvon. 



A very woody little plant, and the old stems bearing the star-shaped 

 fruits may often be seen standing up among the flowering plants of 

 the following season. The leaves are stated to be sometimes opposite 

 or verticillate. 



The specific name has reference to the star-like fruit. 



143. Sedum formosanum N. E. Brown (fig. 175). 



5. formosanum N. E. Brown in Card. Chron. 34, 134, 1885. 



A floriferous annual allied to the Japonica series, which in its 

 spathulate leaves and yellow flowers recalls S. Alfredi Hance. It 

 may be distinguished from its allies by its erect carpels, and very 

 large, loose inflorescence. 



Description. — A glabrous annual, about 6 to 9 inches high. Stem procum- 

 bent at base or erect, repeatedly forked di- or trichotomously, round, smooth, 

 succulent, reddish ; branches divergent, ultimate branches recurved, indistinctly 

 tetragonal with a groove down two opposite faces. Leaves alternate (occasionally 

 opposite), bright green, paler below, softly succulent, recurved, pimply on face 

 and edges when young, flat, spathulate, entire, very blunt, tapered below but 

 scarcely stalked, midrib depressed on face, i inch long by nearly J inch wide, 

 smaller above, merging into similar bracts. Inflorescence very large, loose, 

 leafy, of many dichotomous or trichotomous branches with flowers in the forks, 

 and a leaf or bract at each fork and below each flower. Buds ovate, blunt or 

 apiculate. Flowers ^ inch across, sessile or nearly so, bright yellow. Sepals 

 spreading, green, unequal, spathulate, shortly-stalked, leaf-Hke, slightly spurred. 

 Petals oblong-lanceolate, mucronate, yellow, Jg inch long, patent, ij times the 

 longest sepal, twice the shorter ones. Stamens slightly shorter than the petals, 

 spreading, filaments yellow, anthers reddish. Scales pale yellow, cuneate, 

 rounded at the apex. Carpels greenish yellow, erect, equalUng the stamens, 

 styles short, slightly recurved ; carpels erect in fruit. 



Flowers April-May- June, or September-October (sown in May). 

 Not hardy. 



Habitat. — E. China, Formosa, Korean Archipelago. 



Originally described from specimens raised at Kew from Formosa 

 seed in 1885. Grown at Kew, Edinburgh, Glasnevin, and Wisley in 

 1916 from seed kindly sent me by Mr. "W. J. TuTCHER, Superintendent 

 of the Forestry Department, Hong-Kong. 



N. E. Brown describes it as " exceedingly pretty," but, though 

 very floriferous, the blossoms are rather small and the plant straggUng, 

 and, though pleasing, it does not deserve such high praise. 



144. Sedum Someni Hamet (figs. 176, 177). 

 S. Someni Hamet in Journ. of Bot., 54, App, I., p. 18, 1916, 



Synonym. — S. Mairei Praeger in Journ. of Bot., 57, 53, 191 9. 



Allied to the Japonica series, but annual or biennial, somewhat 

 resembling, in its rosettes of leaves, the spaihulifolium group from 



