ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDXM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 49 



recognizable by its entire heart-shaped leaves, which vary chiefly as 



regards their length. 



Description. — A glabrous herbaceous perennial without barren shoots. 

 Rootstock massive, branched, the greater part subterranean (in cultivation). Stems 

 annual, erect, several together, 9-12 inches long, slender, smooth, unbranched. 

 Leaves alternate, rather distant, fleshy, triangular-ovate, ovate, or ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute or blunt, sessile, cordate, J-i inch long by J-J inch or more 

 broad, green, paler on back, tip often red. Inflorescence a flat, lax, leafy cyme, 

 1-3 inches across. Buds obovate or nearly globular, blunt or apiculate, ribbed, 

 the clasping sepals occupying grooves between the petals. Flowers 5-parted, 

 J inch across. Male flower '.-r-sepals linear, streaked dark purple outside, 

 greenish or purple inside, tube short ; petals i^ times the sepals, oblanceolate, 

 non-contiguous, spreading, often reflexed, dark brownish purple or streaked 

 purple and green ; stamens reddish purple, shorter than the petals ; scales 

 conspicuous, dark shining purple, quadrate, often retuse, reflexed ; carpels 

 minute, erect, greenish, equalling the scales. Female flower : — sepals similar 

 to the male ; petals more linear ; stamens absent ; scales similar to the male ; 

 carpels large, purple, with short, blunt, linear spreading styles. 



Flowers June. Hardy. 



Habitat. — Himalayas, 10,000-12,000 feet. 



Rare in cultivation. I have it from Kew, Edinburgh, and the 

 Lissadell nursery in Co. Sligo, all these plants having their origin in 

 the Darjeeling Botanic Garden, whence I have also received it direct. 

 It also came from Messrs. House & Son of Bristol under the name 

 of 5. Hookeri. The male plant (which is much the more attractive) 

 is commoner in cultivation than the female, which I have seen at 

 Edinburgh, and have raised from Darjeeling seed. 



The specific name recalls the resemblance of the plant to some 

 species of Bupleunim, a pecuUar genus of UmbelUferae. 



Group 2. HiMALENSES. 



10. Sedum tibeticum Hooker fil. and Thomson (fig. 17). 



5. tibeticum H. f. and T. in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot., 2, 96, 1858. 

 Clarke in Hooker, " Flora Brit. India," 2, 418. 



A Himalayan Rhodiola which in appearance comes nearest to 

 S. himalense D. Don, but it is usually glaucous and smooth, while 

 himalense is mostly dark green and rough on leaf and stem. S. 

 tibeticum also belongs to the group which has the inflorescence branches 

 bare of leaves, while those of himalense are leafy. Both have usually 

 dark-purple flowers, and are much slenderer than S. roseum, and 

 much larger than 5. fastigiatum. 



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

 branched. Stems many, from the scales at apex of rootstock, annual, simple, 

 smooth, round, reddish, slender, leafy, 6-9 inches long. Leaves alternate, longer 

 than the intemodes, patent, sessile, lanceolate to oblong, rounded at base, acute, 

 mostly lightly toothed in upper part, generally rather glaucous, pale on back, 

 about J inch long. Inflorescence terminal, flattish, rather lax, 1-2 inches across, 

 leafless or with few bracts at base of branches ; branches several, forked. Flowers 

 dark purple, f inch across. Female flower : — calyx saucer-shaped, purple or 

 green, lobes long-triangular, rather acute, exceeding the tube ; petals lanceolate, 

 acute, nearly twice the sepals, dark purple, wide-spreading ; scales black-purple, 

 oblong, blunt, erect, equalling or exceeding in length and breadth the sepals 

 which cover their backs ; carpels erect, oblong, equalling the petals, -^g inch long, 

 purple, the tips and the very short styles divergent. 



VOL. xlvi. X 



