132 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sent to Kew from Washington named rubricaule were indistinguishable 

 in flower from ebracteatum). 



Description. — A bright green, fleshy, soft, downy perennial, fonning basal 

 rosettes which shoot up, flower, and die in the following season. Rooistock 

 horizontal, very fleshy, greenish, knotted with the round, flat scars of former 

 steins above, bearing shortish, fleshy roots below. Stems of the barren shoots 

 extremely short, bearing a loose rosette of leaves an inch across ; those of the 

 flowering shoots a foot high, erect, stout, round, finely hairy, unbranched, green, 

 or marked especially above with many short purple longitudinal lines, leafy. 

 Leaves alternate, soft, very fleshy, downy on both sides, ovate, very broad at base, 

 bluntly pointed at apex, flat on face, rounded on back, bright green ; those of 

 the barren shoots crowded in a rosette, those of the flowering shoots patent or 

 deflexed, clasping, exceeding the intemodes, an inch long. Inflorescence terminal, 

 very lax, 2-3 inches long and broad, of 3 to 5 alternate axillary few-flowered 

 almost bractless branches. Flowers sessile, whitish, J inch across. Buds ovate, 

 very blunt. Sepals equal or nearly so, downy, very fleshy, ovate, divided half 

 way down, rather acute, wide-spreading, more or less dotted with purple. Petals 

 white with a greenish nerve, ovate, acute, patent, twice the sepals. Stamens 

 erect, nearly equalling the petals, filaments white, anthers yellow. Scales ovate, 

 blunt, fleshy, greenish, translucent. Carpels stout, erect, equalling the stamens, 

 hollowed out behind the scales, styles short, whitish. 



Flowers October. Not hardy. 



Habitat. — Hidalgo, Mexico. 



Long in cultivation, though very rarely seen. Saunders figured it 

 in 1871 from specimens in his glass-houses, and gave plants to Kew. 

 I owe my plant to the kindness of Dr. Rose and of'the Director at 

 Kew, where the species is still in cultivation ; received also from 

 La Mortola, and seen in the Botanic Garden at Dresden. 



In " North American Flora " {loc. cit.) the sepals are described 

 as " very unequal and leaf-hke." This character is not mentioned or 

 shown in the descriptions or figures of De Candolle, Hemsley, or 

 " Refugium Botanicum," and in the Hving and dried specimens which 

 I have examined the sepals are small, ovate, and regular. 



The name refers to the poor development of bracts on the 

 inflorescence. 



47. Sedum rubricaule no v. comb. 



Sedaslrutn rubricaule Rose in " N. Amer. Flora," 22, 59, 1905. 



Description. — " Stems about 30 cm. high, somewhat pubescent, greenish 

 below, purplish above. Basal rosettes dense ; leaves ovate, thick, rather obtuse ; 

 stem-leaves acutish, bright green ; flowers on ultimate branches 3 or 4, sessile ; 

 calyx green, cleft to near the middle ; petals broadly ovate, white ; stamens 

 erect ; antJiers yellowish ; carpels erect." — Rose, loc. cit. 



Habitat. — Mexico. Not hardy. 



Described by Rose from specimens which flowered in Washington 

 in 1903. I do not know the plant ; specimens sent to Kew from Wash- 

 ington which flowered in 1917 proved indistinguishable from 5. ebrac- 

 teatum, and there is little in the description to separate it from that 

 species. The stems of rubricaule are stated to be more hairy and more 

 suffused %vith purple than in its ally, and the leaves ovate instead of 

 obovate or spathulate ; but according to the original description the 

 leaves of S. ebracteatum are ovate, and Hemsley describes them 

 as oval-oblong. So far as I have had an opportunity of studjdng 



