HOUSELEEK 



161 



a rosette, stalkless, wedge-shaped, flat above, white below, and smooth 

 or glabrous. 



The flowers are numerous and close, turned all one way, usually 

 erect, and reddish or pink. The calyx is i2-partite, sticky, fringed with 

 hairs, purple above. The corolla has 12 petals, which are twice as 

 long as the calyx, of a purplish colour. There are 12 stamens with 

 purple anthers. The capsules are numerous, flattened at the border, 

 and open inwards, in the 

 form of follicles with many 

 seeds. 



The plant is tall, reach- 

 ing a height of 12 in. or 

 more. It flowers from June 

 to August. Houseleek is 

 perennial or biennial, and 

 reproduced by division. 



The colour of the 

 flowers, which are purple, 

 depends on their adapta- 

 tion to a narrow or wide 

 circle of visitors. The 

 honey lies hidden, and 

 the flowers are visited by 

 bees, Lepidoptera, and 

 long-tongued flies. Whilst 

 there are 10 stamens in 

 Sedum, in Sempewivum 

 there are 1 2-40. The an- 

 thersopen first, butself-pol- 

 lination is not impossible. 



The follicle splitting open allows the numerous seeds to fall over 

 a wide compass around the parent plant when shaken out by the 

 wind. 



Houseleek is a mural or roof plant, and requires for its growth 

 a certain amount of humus. 



Endophyllum sempervivi, a cluster-cup fungus, noteworthy since it 

 is sunk in the surface of the leaf, is found upon Houseleek, and also 

 a mould Phytophthora omnivora. No insect makes a food-plant of it. 



Sempervivum, Pliny, is Latin for livelong, and tectorum alludes to 

 its roof habitat. 



Houseleek goes by the following names: Aye-green, Bullock's-eye, 



VOL. V. 73 



HOUSELEEK (Sempervivum tectorum, L.) 



