172 CRASSULACEJE. (OUPINE FAMILY.) 



3 . SEDUM, Tourn. Stone-crop. Orpine. 



Sepals and petals 4 or 5. Stamens 8 or 10. Pods many-seeded ; a little scale 

 at the base of each. — Chiefly perennial, smooth, and thick-leaved herbs, with 

 the flowers cymose or one-sided. Petals almost always narrow and acute or 

 pointed. (Name from sedeo, to sit, alluding to the manner in which these plants 

 fix themselves upon rocks and walls.) 



* Flowers perfect and sessile, as it were spiked along one side of spreading flowering 



brandies or of the divisions of a scorpioid cyme, the first or central fluwer mostly 

 b-merous and 10-androus, the others often 4-merous and 8-androus. 



1. S. Acre, L. (Mossy Stone-crop.) Spreading on the ground, moss- 

 like; leaves very small, alternate, almost imbricated on the branches, ovate, 

 very thick ; petals yellow. — Escaped from cultivation to rocky roadsides, &c. 

 July. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. S. pulchellum, Michx. Stems ascending or trailing (4'- 12' high) ; 

 leaves terete, linear-filiform, much crowded ; spikes of the cyme several, densely 

 flowered ; petals rose-purple. — Virginia to S. Illinois, Kentucky, and southward ; 

 also cultivated in gardens. July. 



3. S. N6vii, Gray. Stems spreading, simple (3' - 5' high) ; leaves all alter- 

 nate, those of the sterile shoots wedge-obovate or spatulate, on flowering stems lin- 

 ear-spatidate and flattish ; cyme about 3-spiked, densely flowered ; petals white, 

 more pointed than in the next ; the flowering 3 or 4 weeks later ; leaves and 

 blossoms smaller. — Mountains of Virginia (Salt Pond Mountain, W. M. Can- 

 by) to Alabama (R. D. Nevius). 



4. S. ternatum, Michx. Stems spreading (3' - 6' high) ; leaves flat; the 

 lower whorled in threes, wedge-obovate, the upper scattered, oblong ; cyme 3-spiked, 

 leafy; petals ichite. — Kocky woods, Penn. to Illinois and southward: common 

 in gardens. May, June. 



* * Flowers in a terminal naked and regular cyme or cluster, more or less peduncled: 



leaves flat, obovate or oblong, mostly alternate. 



■*- Flowers perfect, b-merous, 10-androus. 



5. S. telephioides, Michx. Stems ascending (6' -12' high), stout, leafy 

 to the top ; leaves oblong or oval, entire or sparingly toothed ; cyme small ; 

 petals flesh-color, ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed; pods tapering into a slender style. 

 — Dry rocks, Alleghany Mountains, from Maryland southward, and sparingly 

 in New Jersey ? W. New York ? and Indiana. June. — Too near the next. 



6. S. Telepiiii'm, L. (Garden Orpine or Live-for-ever.) Stems 

 erect (2° high), stout; leaves oval, obtuse, toothed; cymes compound; petals 

 purple, oblong-lanceolate; pods abruptly pointed with a short style. — Rocks and 

 banks, escaped from cultivation in sonic places. July. (Adv. from Eu.) 



+- -<- Flowers diozcious, mostly 4-merous and S-androus. 



7. S. Rhodiola, DC. (Roseroot.) Stems erect (5'- 10' high) ; leaves 

 oblong or oval, smaller than in the preceding ; flowers in a close cyme, greenish- 

 yellow, or the fertile turning purplish. — Pennsylvania, on cliffs of Delaware 

 River, above Easton ! ( Prof ttsors I W/< /• Sp (iree.n ) ; Quoddy Head, Maine (Prof. 

 Verrill), and northward. May, June. (Eu.) 



