GENUS 4. ORPINE FAMILY. 21 r 



i. Sempervivum tectorum L. Houseleek. Fig. 2143. 

 Sempervivum tectorum L. Sp. PI. 464. 1753. 



Flowering stems about i high, the barren shoots forming 

 lateral nearly globular tufts. Leaves oval or ovate, the lower 

 i'-ii' long, very thick, short-pointed, bordered by a line of 

 stiff short hairs; cyme large, dense; flowers sometimes i' 

 broad, pink, sessile along its spreading or recurved branches; 

 petals lanceolate, acute, 2 to 3 times as long as the obtuse 

 ciliate sepals. 



Essex Co., Mass., escaped from gardens and reported as well 

 established ; Somerset Co., N. J. Native of continental Europe. 

 Summer. Healing-blade. Aye-green. Bullock's-eye. Poor Jan's- 

 leaf. Jupiter's-beard. Hen-and-chickens. Old English names, 

 homewort, sengreen and thunder-plant ; a fancied protection against 

 lightning, as well as fire. 



Family 45. PENTHORACEAE Rydb. N. A. Fl. 22 : 75. 1905. 



VIRGINIA STONECROP FAMILY. 



Erect perennial scarcely succulent herbs, with alternate sessile serrate thin 

 leaves, and greenish perfect flowers in forked secund cymes. Calyx 5-parted or 

 6-parted. Petals usually wanting, if present 5 or 6. Stamens twice as many as 

 the sepals, hypogynous ; filaments filiform. Carpels 5 or 6, united to the middle, 

 ovules oo. Fruit depressed, 5-6-lobed, 5-6-beaked, the lobes dehiscent, tipped 

 with divergent styles, many-seeded. 



The family consists of the following genus. 



i. PENTHORUM L. Sp. PL 432. 1753. 



Characters of the family, as given above. [Greek, five, from the symmetrical flower.] 

 Three known species, natives of eastern North America, Japan and China, the following typical. 



The following is the only one known in North America. The genus is referred to the Saxifrage 



Family by some authors and to the Orpine Family by others. 



i. Penthorum sedoides L. Ditch or Virginia 

 Stone,crop. Fig. 2144. 



Penthorum sedoides L. Sp. PI. 432. 1753. 



Glabrous, erect, stem usually branched and angled 

 above, terete below, 6'-2 high. Leaves lanceolate 

 or narrowly elliptic, acuminate at each end, finely 

 serrate, 2'-$' long, 6"-i2" wide ; cymes 2-3-forked, 

 the branches i'-3' long; flowers short -pedicelled, 

 about 2" broad; sepals triangular-ovate, acute, 

 shorter than the flattish capsule; petals linear or 

 linear-spatulate, often or generally wanting. 



In ditches and swamps, New Brunswick to Florida, 

 west to Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas. July- 

 Sept. 



Family 46. PARNASSIACEAE Dumort. Anal. Fam. 37, 42. 1829. 



GRASS-OF-PARNASSUS FAMILY. 



Glabrous perennial scapose herbs, with short rootstocks, basal petioled entire 

 leaves, usually with a single sessile leaf on the scape, and solitary terminal white 

 or pale yellow flowers. Calyx 5-lobed nearly to the base, its short tube free from 

 or adnate to the ovarv. Petals 5, spreading, marcescent, each with a cluster of 



