THE SUNDEW FAMILY. 211 



" Queen of the marsh, imperial Drosera treads, 

 Rush-fringed banks and moss-embroider'd beds; 

 Redundant folds of glossy silk surround 

 Her slender waist, and trail upon the ground.'* 



THE ORPINE FAMILY. 



C7'assulacecE. 



Chiefly herbs, inostly succulent in habit, and with rarely solitary, but 

 more often small syfnmetrical flowers which grow iti cymes. Calyx 

 lobes and petals equal in number. Stamens : of the same number, or 

 tivice as many as the petals. 



WIDOW'S CROSS. {Plate LX II L) 



Sedum pulchellum. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Orpine. White, pink or purple. Scentless. Texas to Virginia. May, June. 



Ftcnuers : sessile and crowded in one-sided, terminal and recurved cymes, 

 branched four to seven times. Sepals: four or five ; shorter than the petals; 

 rather blunt. Petals : four or five, linear-lanceolate; pointed. Stamens: eight or 

 ten, inserted on the calyx; anthers, dark coloured. Leaves: alternate; sessile; 

 crowded along the branches; linear, blunt at the apex and auriculate at the base; 

 entire; glabrous. Stem: three to twelve inches long; erect, or decumbent; 

 branched from the base. 



As the generic name of these pretty little plants implies they have a way 

 of sitting as they grow. Most often we see them perched high on rocks 

 where the shallow soil collected in the niches is almost hidden from view. 

 Here they perform a good service as soil makers. For gradually as their 

 roots force their way through the fissures, the openings in the rocks become 

 larger and more subject to damage through the violence of the weather and 

 other extraneous causes. Finally they crumble into dust which is gladly 

 received by mother Earth. In the south the orpines are cultivated for they 

 are quite pretty and very useful in certain places as ground covers. 



S. ternatum, wild stonecrop, is a clearly defined species from the way its 

 sterile shoots arise from the base and spread their tufts of spatulate, smooth 

 leaves which about their margins are narrowly transparent. The flowering 

 branches also ascend and throw out spreading and recurved cymes. At the 

 bases of the flowers there are leafy bracts while their linear-lanceolate 

 petals are white. The wild stonecrop is not an uncommon plant and when 

 found is usually sitting jauntily on moist banks, or the top of rocks. 



