87 



odorata,) or the Frenchman's darling, as it is called, and as its name im- 

 plies, was brought from Egypt to England more than one hundred years 

 ago, 'and is loved for its sweetness alone more loved than the gaudy 

 Tulip or scentless Fritillary, beautiful as they both are. 



" No gorgeous flowers the meek Reseda grace, 

 Yet sip with eager trunk yon busy race 

 Her simple cup, nor heed the dazzling gem 

 That beams in Fritillaria's diadem." 



HOUSE LEEK. SEMPERVIVUM. 



COMMON HOUSE LEEK. Sempervivum tectorum. 



Plate 6, jig. 15. 



One of the easiest plants for the young botanist to examine, 

 and one of the most easily procured, as it grows on almost every 

 cottage roof. Its beautiful star-like flowers are borne in a head 

 upon a leafy stalk, four or five inches high. Each flower half 

 an inch or more across, inclosed in a green calyx, cleft at the 

 edge into twelve blunt parts. Petals of a fine rose color, twelve 

 in number and pointed ; upon each of which lies a deep red 

 stamen, and withinside these, in the centre of the flower, a star 

 of twelve pink styles, afterward turning into as many capsules. 

 The leaves are very fleshy, with hairs around their edges, and 

 grow in rosette-like tufts. The plant increases by white 

 creeping shoots, which as soon as they get clear of the parent 

 plant grow out into a similar crown of fleshy leaves. It is in 

 flower in July, and may be easily grown by merely sticking the 

 off-sets on to tiling or on a wall, with a bit of clay or earth, 

 where afterwards neither the strongest wind, nor a deluge of 

 rain can remove them. The Latin name of Sempervivum means 

 Everlasting Life, as it remains uninjured in the hottest sun, 

 and during the sharpest frost. The leaves are used as an 

 application to burns and bruises. 



