Cotyledon.] XXX. CRASSULACE.fi. 15& 



IL COTYLEDON. COTYLEDON. 



Herbs, or succulent shrubs, with scattered leaves (rarely opposite in 

 some exotic species), and flowers in terminal racemes or panicles. 

 Sepals 5, small. Petals combined into a single tubular or campanulate 

 corolla, with 5 teeth or divisions. Stamens 10, inserted at the base of 

 the corolla, but often adnate to the top of the tube. Carpels 5, each 

 with a scale at the base. 



Taking this genus in the sense in which it was understood by Linnaeus, 

 it includes a considerable number of south-west African, besides several 

 south European and central Asiatic species, which, with our British 

 ones, are considered by some modern botanists as forming a distinct 

 genus under the name of Umbilicus, 



1. C. Umbilicus, Linn. (fig. 360). Pennywort, Navdwort. Stock 

 perennial, almost woody. Radical and lower leaves on long stalks, 

 tleshy, orbicular, broadly crenate, and more or less peltate. Flowering 

 stems erect, from 6 inches to a foot high, simple or slightly branched, 

 leafy at the base only, and bearing a long raceme of pendulous, 

 yellowish-green flowers. Calyx very small. Corolla cylindrical, about 

 3 lines long, becoming afterwards somewhat enlarged, with 5 short 

 teeth, and enclosing the stamens and carpels. 



On rocks, walls, and old buildings in western Europe, extending east- 

 ward round the greater part of the Mediterranean, southwards to the 

 Canary Islands, and northwards to Ireland, southern and western 

 England, and the south and west counties of Scotland. PL summer. 



