306 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



4-vcrticillatc leaves, bushy growth, branches densely mammillate 

 above, and yellow flowers with blunt linear sepals as long as the 

 petals, will distinguish it from any other Sedum. 



Description. — A deciduous, bushy, glabrous biennial, forming in flower a 

 rather dense rounded mass 4 to 6 inches in height and breadth. Roots fibrous. 

 Stem in first year short (2 to 3 inches), smooth, erect or inclined, simple, or with 

 a few short patent branches, clothed with leaves which fall in autumn ; in 

 second 5'ear becoming J inch thick, with marked constrictions at the nodes, 

 branches often thicker at their apices than at their bases, bearing many slender 

 (i mm. diameter), erect or ascending, slightly grooved, reddish branches which 

 branch many times and become densely mammillate above, the mammillae 

 forming close, longitudinal rows. Leaves variable in arrangement, mostly 



Fig. 182. — 5. annuum Linn. 



4-verticiUate, sometimes (especially above) temate, opposite or alternate, narrowly 

 linear-spathulate, blunt, sessile, smooth, fleshy, flat above much rounder below, 

 the lower about J inch by -^\ inch, diminishing upwards into similar spurred 

 bracts, spur very short, rounded. Cymes terminal, very many, each of a central 

 flower surrounded by three short (| inch), erecto-patent, leafy dichotomous 

 branches, each bearing a flower in the fork and a few flowers on either side j 

 pedicels shorter than the flowers, the upper ones very short. Buds ovate, acute. 

 Flowers small, yellow, not opening widely, ^ inch across. Sepals resembling 

 the leaves, green, often flushed red, slightly unequal, linear to linear-spathulate, 

 blunt, very fleshy, shortly spurred, up to about J inch long, erect or spreading in 

 bud. Petals erecto-patent, yellow, equalling the longest sepal, ovate-lanceolate, 

 grooved on face, with a reddish keel on back, nearly J inch long, with a short 

 mucro behind and exceeding the blunt tip. Stamens 5, episepalous, yellow, 

 equalling the carpels. Scales small, cuneate, emarginate, greenish-translucent. 

 Carpels erect, ovate-oblong, green, ^ the petals, narrowing rather abruptly into 

 the short styles, which are at first erect, later spreading. 



