308 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



t 



Aichryson? the calyx is often cup-shaped, pluridentate or plurifid. 



The petals are slightly imbricate, sometimes united for some way at 

 Cotyledon Umbilicus the base. The stamens are either quite free, or 

 {Pennywort). united below with the bases of the petals, to which 

 they are superposed. In certain ./Eonimns, and 

 in Greenovia? whose flowers have upwards of 

 thirty sepals and as many petals, the scales of 

 the disk superposed to the carpels in other sections 

 are absent, and the floral receptacle is more or less 

 concave. The real number of species 3 of House- 

 leek 4 is estimated at about forty, but some describers 

 have reckoned as many as a hundred. They inhabit 

 the temperate and mountainous regions of Central 

 Europe and Asia, and Continental and Insular 

 Africa. 



Monanthes* has rightly been made 6 a mere section 

 of this genus ; its flower is formed as in the other 

 groups, with from six to twelve parts to the 

 verticil. The sepals, petals, and diplostemonous 

 androceum have a somewhat perigynous inser- 

 tion on the thick receptacle, resulting from the 

 expansion of the receptacle into a short in- 

 verted cone. The scale external to the base of 

 each carpel is fan-shaped, larger across than in 

 height, and shortly stipitate ; or else it is divided 



into two cucullate lobes. The gynseceum, fruit, and seeds are 



&£ 



Fig. 341. 

 Tn florescence. 



flower is 6- 12-merous. The scales of the disk 

 are absent, or clavate or cordate. 



1 Webb, loc. cit., i. 181, t 27. The flower is 

 5— 12-merous, with ciliate scales. 



2 Webb, loc. cit., i. 198, t. 36. 



3 DC, in Bull. Soc. Philom. (1801), n. 49; 

 Mem., ii. 37, t. 1, fig. 4. — Cahbess., in Jacquem. 

 Voy., Bot., t. 74. — Hook. f. & Thoms., in Journ. 

 Linn. Soc, ii. 92. — Geen. & Gode., Fl. de Fr., 

 i. 628.— Walp., Rep., ii. 263, 935; Ann., i. 326; 

 ii. 670 ; vii. 923. 



4 Sect. 6: 1. Chronobium (DC, PI. Ear. 

 Jard. Gen., n. 21). Suckers 0. Flowers yellow 

 or more rarely white. (Jacq., Sort. Schcenbr., t. 

 464- -Bot. Mag., t. 1963.)— 2. Jovibarba (DC, 

 loc. cit., sect. ii.). Suckers springing from lowest 



axils. Flowers purple or pale yellow. (Species 

 all European.) — 3. Aichryson (Webb). Calyx 

 cyathiform, 5-12-merous. Scales ciliate. Carpels 

 sunk in tube. (Species from Canaries. Bot. 

 Mag., t. 296, 1809.)— 4. JEonium (Webb). 

 Calyx fi-12-merous. Scales of varying form, 

 clavate obcordate or quadrate, or 0. (Species 

 from Canaries and Madeira. Bot. Mag., t. 1978, 

 1980.— Bot. Beg., t. 1741; (1841) , t. 61.)— 5. 

 Monanlhes (Haw.). Flowers 6-12-merous. 

 Scales petaloid flabellate, shortly stipitate. 

 (Species 2 or 3, from Canaries.) 



5 Haw., Rev. PI. Succ, 68.— B. H., Gen., 

 660, n. 11. — Petrophyes Webb & Berth., Pkyt. 

 Canar., i. 201, t. 36, B, C 



6 Endl., Gen., n. 4623 c. 



