ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 65 



The leaves indeed vary greatly, as shown by fig. 26. The flowers 

 are usually purplish red, but two consignments of collected plants 

 received from DarjeeUng had white flowers. The sepals are especially 

 variable ; in some cases they are even as long as the petals ; at the 

 other end of the series they are only one-fifth as long (fig. 25, b). 

 When Masters wrote his paper in 1878 he had seen only a single 



Fig. 26. — Leaves of 5. trifidum. x i. 



plant of this species — in the frames at Kew — and it is stiU rather 

 rare in cultivation. 



Closely allied forms not uncommon in Yunnan (and of which I 

 have distributed plants raised from seed sent by Rev. E. E. Maire) 

 are referred by Hamet * to varieties of 5. Unearifolium Royle. While 

 they appear to me to be better placed under trifidum, I await further 

 information. 



18. Sedum Semenovii Masters (fig. 27). 



5. Semenovii Masters, in Gard. Chron., 1878 ii., 267. 



Synonym. — Umbilicus Semenovii Regel and Herder in Bull. Soc. Nat. 

 Moscou, 39, ii. 65, 1866. 



A racemose inflorescence is very rare in the genus Sedum, and 

 the bottle-brush-shaped mass of whitish flowers borne by the present 

 species gives it an unusual and distinct appearance. It most resembles 

 the American S. rhodanthum (which name I found attached to it 

 in one of the leading Botanic Gardens), but the latter has broader, 

 usually toothed leaves and rose-coloured flowers. 



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

 deeply scarred at bases of old stems. Stems annual, erect, unbranched, i- 

 2 feet high, round, smooth, leafy throughout, several from the summit of the 



* Notes R. Bot. Gard. Edinb., 6, 119 ; 7, 399 ; 8, 142. 



VOL. XLVI. F 



