SELAGINELLA. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. SEMPERVIVUM. 719 



S. SPECTABILE. This is distinct and 

 beautiful, erect, and with broad glaucous 

 leaves. Its rosy-purple flowers appear in 

 dense broad corymbs about the middle of 

 August, and remain in perfection for two 

 months or more. The glaucous foliage, 

 even before the flowers come, is a pleasant 

 relief to any high-coloured plant that may 

 be near it. It withstands extreme cold, 

 heat, or wet, and, unlike most plants, will 

 grow and flower to perfection in shaded 

 places, thriving in any soil. Varieties 

 with darker flowers have recently come to 

 light, the best being atro-purpureum, 

 with flowers of rich dark crimson-purple. 

 Japan. 



S. STOLONIFERUM (Purple Stonecrop). 

 The best of the Sedums with large flat 

 leaves is the Purple Stonecrop. It flowers 



garden. These kinds are 5. den- 

 ticulata, S. helvetica, and 5. rupestris, 

 small trailing plants of a delicate 

 green, mossy growth. 5. Kraussiana, 

 generally known in plant - houses as 

 S. denticulata, is also hardy in many 

 places, and in Ireland grows and 

 thrives better than any of the kinds 

 mentioned. All these plants require a 

 well - drained peaty soil, shade, and 

 a sheltered position. 



SEMPERVIVUM (Houseleek). Suc- 

 culent rock and alpine plants, of 

 which the common Houseleek (5. 

 tectorum), often seen on old roofs and 

 walls, is the most familiar. There is 

 a strong family likeness throughout, 



Sedum kamtschaticuin. 



late in summer, and often through the 

 autumn makes a bright display, and is 

 suited for edgings, the margins of mixed 

 borders, and for the rock garden. Syns., 

 5. dentatum and 5. spurinm. Caucasus. 



S. TELEPHIUM. This is the most vari- 

 able Stonecrop. No fewer than twenty 

 forms have received names either as sub- 

 species or as varieties, but our native form 

 is as showy as any. It is i to 2 feet high, 

 the stout erect stems furnished with fleshy 

 leaves, and in late summer and autumn 

 bearing dense broad clusters of bright 

 rosy-purple, but sometimes white flowers. 

 Frequent in hedgerows and thickets. 



SELAGINELLA. A few hardy kinds 

 of this large family of Lycopods are 

 valuable for carpeting the fernery or 

 clothing shady spots in the rock 



and they form rosette - like tufts of 

 fleshy leaves, which chiefly differ in 

 the colour of the foliage, some deep 

 red, others pale green. The flowers of 

 most of them are of a reddish tinge, 

 and several are yellow. All the hardy 

 kinds will grow well in dry sandy parts 

 of the rock garden where few other 

 alpines thrive, or on old walls, ruins, 

 and the like, merely requiring to be 

 placed in chinks with a little soil. 

 Most of them thrive on any border, if 

 the soil be not too stiff and damp, but 

 they prefer a dry, elevated position 

 and full exposure to the sun. Nearly 

 all are easily increased by their abun- 

 dant offsets. Of late years some of 

 the larger kinds, such as 5. calcareum, 

 have been used for beds. Europe and 

 W. Asia. 



