ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 25 



much-branched bushes from one to several feet in height. The flowers 

 and leaves of these sub-shrubs vary in form and colour, and there is no 

 general affinity between them. It is to be noted also that while in 

 some of the shrubby species (e.g. S. oxypetalum, S. retusum) the 

 upright single-stemmed habit is retained in old plants, in others 

 , which are for some time erect (e.g. S. allantoides, S. pachyphyllum, 

 S Treleasei) the branches at length sag under their own weight, 

 and. resting on the ground, take root, so that eventually a 

 patch is produced differing in no essential particular from the 

 characteristic mat form of the Seda Genuina. 



Another unusual feature of some of the Mexican Seda Genuina is 

 that the inflorescence is not terminal, but lateral. An intermediate 

 stage is seen in S. Palmeri S. Watson and S. compressum Rose, m 

 which the young inflorescence appears in the centre of the leaf-rosette, 

 but soon a shoot arises from just below the flowering-shoot, and growing 

 and straightening out pushes the flowering-shoot to one side, so that 

 when in bloom the latter is lateral and springs from a point below 

 the leaf-rosette. In a few other species, e.g. S. nutans Rose. S. 

 pachyphyllum Rose, S. Adolphi Hamet, the inflorescence is frankly 

 lateral, borne on a short axillary branch which arises several inches 

 below the summit of the stem. This is a step towards the character- 

 istic feature of the Eurasian section Rhodiola, in which an annual 

 crop of flower-shoots arises from the axils of scale-leaves on the fleshy 

 caudex. 



Few of the Mexican Sedums display any near relationship with 

 those of the United States or Canada, and some of the yellow-flowered 

 species, such as S. mexicanum Britton and S. oaxacanum Rose, strik- 

 ingly recall Japanese and Chinese plants of the series Japonica 

 of Maximowicz. 



The Mexican species vary in hardiness from quite tender (the 

 majority) to nearly hardy (e.g. moranense, Palmeri, compressum, 

 retusum, confusum, praealtum, which are hardy in all the milder parts 

 of the British Isles [p. 17] ). 



Of over 75 species so far described from the area, 44 are hsted 

 below as at present in cultivation. 



Tender Asiatic Sedums. 



The tender Asiatic species belong mostly to the series Japonica. 

 founded by Maximowicz to include a few glabrous perennial plants 

 with fibrous roots, slender, procumbent, mostly rooting stems, spurred 

 leaves, 5-parted stellate yellow flowers, narrow acuminate petals, 

 carpels ^-connate, and stellate-patent fruit. Recent exploration, 

 especially in China, has raised the number of them considerably, and 

 has broadened their definition. They have, as Maximowicz remarks, 

 more affinity with some of the American Sedums than with European 

 or other Asiatic groups. A few (e.g. variicolor, Chauveaudi, sar- 

 mentosum) are hardy in the milder parts of the British Isles. 



