l80 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Description. — A minute evergreen perennial, creeping, mealy, 1-2 inches 

 high. Stems wiry, bare, branched, branches many, ascending, very leafy. 

 Leaves opposite, ovoid or sub-globose, | inch long, white- mealy, flushed red or 

 purple, arranged in four close rows, alternate and usually not larger on the 

 flowering shoots. Inflorescence small, few-flowered. Buds ovate, blunt. 

 Flowers ^^ inch across, pedicels very slender, equalling the flowers. Sepals 

 ovate-lanceolate, acute, fleshy, mealy, flushed red. Petals white, ovate, apiculate, 

 3 times the sepals, with a strong red nerve on back. Stamens shorter than the 



Fig. 100. — 5. brevifolium var. quinquefarium var. nov. 



petals, filaments white, anthers purple. Scales quadrate, yellow. Carpels 

 white, erect, shorter than the stamens, erect also in fruit. 



Flowers July. Hardy if kept dry. 

 Habitat. — South-west Europe, Morocco. 



Var. quinquefarium var. nov.* (fig, 100). 



Description. — Stem twice as thick and twice as long as in type. Leaves 

 much larger, arranged in five spiral rows, -j^ inch long on the barren stems, up 

 to -^ inch long on the flowering stems. Flowers as in the tj^e. 



A very distinct-looking plant which, in the absence of floral 

 differences, must be placed under brevifolium. In its larger 5-ranked 



* Caules quam in typo duplo crassiores et duplo longiores. Folia in quinque 

 ordines spirales disposita, ea surculorum sterilium ad 5 mm. longa, ea surculorum 

 floriferorum ad 8 mm. longa. 



