CRASSULACEJE. 



305 



a 



to its base. The 

 style whose apex 



ovary 

 is 



is one- 

 stigma- 



Sedum acre (Stonecrop). 



1% 



inate scale below and external 

 celled, tapering above into 

 tiferous within. Each ovary 

 contains in its ventral angle 

 a parietal placenta, whose two 

 vertical lips support a variable 

 number of anatropous ascend- 

 ing ovules, with their micro- 

 pyles turned downwards and 

 outwards. 1 Thefruitis formed 

 of five free follicles which 

 dehisce down the ventral edge 

 to free the elongated seeds, 2 

 whose fleshy albumen 3 sur- 

 rounds an embryo with an 

 inferior radicle. In certain 

 Sedumx the flowers are tetra- 

 merous ; 4 in others they 

 become polygamous 5 by abor- 

 tion. The transverse ex- 

 pansion of the receptacle often 

 renders the insertion of the 



perianth and androceum more or less perigynous ; and the stamens 

 superposed to the petals may be adnate to them to a variable height. 

 The oppositipetalous stamens are sometimes sterile ; 6 sometimes the 

 ovary cells have few ovules or only one. 7 At least one hundred 

 quite distinct species of this genus are known, 8 herbs or undershrubs, 

 glabrous or covered with glandular hairs. The various organs are 



Fig. 332. 

 Habit. 



forms : " a. With papillose bands. Sedum his- 

 panicum, spuriian, populifolium, acre, b. Without 

 papilla? ? S. rejlexum." 



1 They have two coats, often closely united 

 together below. 



2 They are usually wrinkled and dotted on the 

 surface. 



3 This is very thin, or even reduced to a mere 

 membrane, or often quite absent. 



4 They may, on the contrary, be 6-8-merous. 



5 Especially in Rhodiola (L., Gen,, n. 1124; — 

 Lamk., III., t. 819). 



6 Especially in Procrassula (Griseb., Spicil. 

 Ft. Rum., 323; — Telmissa Fenzl., Pug. PI. Syr., 



VOL. HI. 



14 ; III. et Descr. PI. Nov. Syr., 63, 1. 16 ;— 

 Aithales Webb, Phyt. Canar., i. 178). The 

 carpels are here more or less coherent at the base. 



" Especially in S. pumilum Benth. {PI. 

 Hartweg., 310). 



8 Reichb., PI. Crit., t. 841, 845.— DC, in 

 Bull. Sec. Philom. (1801), n. 94; PL Grass., t. 

 22, 33, 55, 59, 10, 92, 93, 101, 110, 115-120, 

 143._Gren. & Gode., Fl. de Fr., i. 617.— 

 Royle, III. Himal., t. 48. — Hook. f. & Thoms., 

 in Journ. Linn. Soc, ii. 95. — A. Gray, Man., 

 ed. 2, 140. — Chapm., Fl. S. Unit. States, 150. — 

 Pot. Mag., t. 1807, 2224. — Walp., Pep., ii. 

 260, 935 ; v. 795; Ann., i. 324; ii. 670; vii. 919. 



