238 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



most striking forms the stamens were crimson, the scales flushed with 

 red, and the carpels deep yellow with the inner face crimson. 

 It derives its name from this variation in colour. 



III. Sedum spathulifolium Hooker (fig. 138). 



5. spathulifolium Hooker, "Flor. Bor. Amer.," 1,227, 1832. Masters in 

 Gard. Chron., 1878, ii. 376 (but not fig. 68). "N. Amer. Flora," 

 22, 72. 



A number of the North American Sedums are small species with 

 spathulate leaves and yellow flowers, but only a few are in cultiva- 

 tion. The present species belongs to this group and may be dis- 

 tinguished by its loose rosettes of glaucous foliage turning red, its short, 

 horizontal runner-like shoots, and its ample flat inflorescence. In 

 one variety the plant is green, not glaucous. 



Description. — A small evergreen glaucous perennial, forming a close, flat 

 clump, tinged red in exposure. Roots fibrous. Stems smooth, round ; the 

 barren ones very short, erect, bearing a loose rosette of leaves about i inch across 

 and emitting at base runner-like prostrate shoots i to 2 inches long, bare of leaves 

 save near the ends, where they send out roots and form similar leaf-rosettes ; 

 flower-stems erect, leafy, 3 to 5 inches high. Leaves of barren shoots flat, fleshy, 

 spathulate, with an abrupt pointed recurved tip, tapered below, i inch long by 

 f inch wide, glaucous, very white on back ; those of flowering shoots distant, 

 oblong, sessile, very fleshy. Inflorescence a large, flattish, rather dense, leafy 

 cjmie, 2 to 3 inches across. Buds ovate-lanceolate, acute. Flowers bright yellow, 

 i^ to j inch across. Sepals glaucous, tapering, acute, standing up between the 

 petals, tube short. Petals patent or slightly reflexed above, lanceolate, acute, 

 bright yellow, more than twice the sepals. Stamens erect, slightly shorter than 

 the petals, filaments yellow, anthers orange. Scales small, quadrate, orange. 

 Carpels green or yellow, shorter than the stamens, much compressed, erect at 

 first, soon spreading ; wide-spreading in fruit. 



Flowers May- June. 



Habitat. — British Columbia to California. 



Generally found in gardens (in which it has a wide distribution, 

 and is generally correctly named) in the small glaucous form with 

 leaves often tipped with red, which may be regarded as typical ; four 

 native gatherings received from Western America all belong to this, 

 or come close to it ; but several other forms are occasionally found 

 in cultivation. The first of these is so distinct as to merit a varietal 

 name, and it is described below. Another, which came from the 

 Royal Horticultural Society and from Kew, is, like the last, larger 

 than the type, with leaves glaucous when young and deep purple 

 when mature, and from the horticultural standpoint deserves a name. 

 A third form, received from Canon Ellacombe, has an almost round 

 tip end to the leaf (owing to the apiculate tip being much deflexed), 

 which gives it a distinct appearance. 



Var. majus var. nov.* (iig. 138, a). 



Rosettes of barren shoots twice as large as in type, of about twenty, 

 instead of ten, leaves. Leaves longer and broader, more apiculate, 



* Rosulae quam in typo duplo majores, foliorum 15-20 composita. FoUa 

 longiora et latiora, magis apiculata, viridia, vix glauca, nee rubro-tincta, in- 

 florescentia major. 



