ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 37 



usually under the name of S. Rhodiola linifoUum rubrum. The 

 yellowish- or greenish-flowered type is seldom .seen. Apart from 

 " linifoUum rubrum " I succeeded in procuring the plant, male or 

 female, from some fourteen different sources — aU garden sources 

 — and the series shows a wide range of variation, especially as regards 

 leaf-characters. The leaves vary from Hnear-attenuate to lanceolate 

 or elliptic-oblong, the ratio of length to breadth from 12 to i to 4 

 to I ; as regards dentition, they vary from sharply toothed through- 

 out or in upper half to entire (Fig. 9, a). The dark-green colour 

 is characteristic, and only once have I seen a slightly glaucous form. 

 The best distinguishing marks between this and the wide range of 

 forms of S. roseum are the five-parted flowers and the leaves almost 

 always broadest at the base, not near the apex. 



Description. — A glabrous herbaceous perennial. Rootstock thick, branched, 

 resembling that of S. roseum. Stems annual, several from the summit of the 

 branches of the rootstock, fewer and taller than in roseum, erect, pale green, 

 smooth, round, unbranched, a foot high or more ; barren stems absent. Leaves 

 green, rather thin, tapering or oblong, alinost always widest at the base, sessile, 

 acute, usually about i to i^ inch long by J inch broad, sharply and irregularly 

 toothed mostly near the apex or rarely entire, usually set at right angles to the 

 stem, flat or recurved. Inflorescence a dense terminal cyme, naked or leafy or 

 involucrate. Flowers 5- (sometimes 4-) parted, small, greenish yellow. Male 

 FLOWER : — j^g inch long by -^^ inch across, shorter than the pedicel ; sepals linear, 

 green ; petals slightly exceeding the sepals, wide- spreading, linear-lanceolate 

 or linear-obovate, greenish ; stamens exceeding the petals, greenish ; scales 

 large, oblong, emarginate, yellow ; carpels small, erect, slender, green, equalling 

 the petals. Female flower : — sepals and petals similar, linear, small, erect ; 

 stamens absent ; scales as in the male ; carpels slightly spreading, i J times the 

 sepals and petals. 



Flowers April-May. Hardy. 



Habitat. — Himalaya, Turkestan, Mongolia, north China. 



Var. rubrum nom. nov. 



Synonyms. — S. Rhodiola var. linifolia Regel and Schmalh. in " Acta Hort. 

 Petrop.," 5, 583. S. linifoUum rubrum or S. Rhodiola linifoUum rubrum of 

 gardens. 



Illustrations. — Kegel, " Gartenflora." t. 1080. Trans. Russ, Hort. Soc, 

 1863. t. 129. 



Usually stouter than the type, leaves elongate, not much toothed, 

 inflorescence very dense, generally leafless, flowers rich brown-red, 

 with bright orange scales. 



Occurs both as male and female, the male being the commoner 

 in cultivation, and much the more showy. In some male plants the 

 colouring is deeper, of a purpUsh tinge. 



In the relative length of the different parts of the flower, the 

 species is somewhat variable, and between the yellow-flowered type 

 and the red variety colour-intermediates occur. I have pale orange 

 forms, and one handsome plant has petals, sepals, anthers, and 

 carpels yellow, scales and filaments deep red. 



The plant commences to flower long before the stem is fully grown, 

 especially in the case of var. rubrum. Fig. 9 represents a stem 

 in this condition. 



Named after Ivan Kirilow, Russian botanist. 



