86 JOURNAL OF IHE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



f. roseo-variegatum. 



Synonym. — Var. biltoniense hort. 



Variegated forms are so rare in Sedum that mention may be made 

 of an interesting form which originated in the garden of the late Canon 

 Ellacombe. In this the young stems and leaves are of a bright pink 

 colour, but on approaching maturity they 'turn green. It is now 

 in several gardens. 



A curious unisexual (female) form of purpureum is at Glasnevin, 

 derived from a garden source. In this (see fig. 36&') the sepals are 

 normal ; the petals small, only i| times as long as the sepals, ovate- 

 oblong, very concave, very blunt, whitish flecked with rose on back, 

 almost erect ; carpels i| to 2 times the petals, not contiguous on 

 the inner face, but having a central space in many cases as large as 

 a carpel ; very irregular as regards position, and varying in number 

 from 3 to 6, deep rose-coloured above ; styles very short, spreading 

 widely (instead of erect or slightly spreading as in the type). Occasion- 

 ally a single filament without an anther is present. The cause of 

 the irregularity of position of the carpels and of the central hollow is 

 their abnormal width : they are 2 mm. across (instead of i| mm.) 

 and are remarkably flat on both inner and outer faces. 



25. Sedum Taquetii Praeger (figs. 36c, 40). 



S. Taquetii Praeger in Journ. of Boi., 56, 151, 1818. 



Allied to 5. Telephium, S. maximum, S. pseudospectabile, and 

 5. alhoroseum, from all of which it is separable by its larger green 

 and purple flowers, and especially by its remarkably large carpels 

 with divergent tips. It comes nearest to maximum and alhoroseum. 

 resembling the former (not the latter) in having its leaves opposite 

 and sessile, and the latter in having red pigment in the carpels, but 

 not in the petals. Its habit is that of alhoroseum, but it lacks the 

 pale-green colour of that species, the leaves being of a deep-green shade, 

 as in Telephium, but of the shape of those of psendospeclabile. 



Description. — A glabrous herbaceous perennial. Rootstock fleshy, with 

 spindle-shaped tuberous roots as in 5. Telephium. Stems annual, erect, i-i| foot 

 high, moderately stout, smooth, round, thickened below the nodes, mostly with 

 some ascending axillary branches in the upper third. Leaves opposite, equalling 

 or longer than the intemodes, sessile, elliptic, rounded at apex and base, slightly 

 and bluntly toothed, fleshy, dark green more or less dotted with purple, about 

 2^ inches long by ij inch broad, edges upturned in lower half so that the leaf 

 appears to clasp the stem. Inflorescence of terminal and lateral rather dense 

 rounded corymbs, 1-2 inches across, the lateral ones falling short of the terminal. 

 Buds elliptic, blunt, green, ^| inch long, on pedicels of the same length. Flowers 

 up to I inch across, | inch long, rather irregular in size. Sepals dark green, 

 lanceolate or deltoid, blunt, fleshy, twice as long as the tube. Petals four times 

 the sepals, up to | inch long, linear-oblanceolate, rather blunt, pale green, whitish 

 near the base, wide-spreading. Stamens equalling the petals, the epipetalous 

 ones adnate in the lower third, filaments whitish, anthers ovate, pale red. Scales 

 strap-shaped, straight, four times as long as broad, emarginate, whitish, yellow 

 at the apex. Car/>e/5 long, slender, erect with spreading tips, tapered below, 

 merging into short styles above, equalling or slightly exceeding the petals, green 

 streaked with purple, purple on the upper part of the inner face. 



