224 THE CEASSTTLA TAMILT. 



inches long ; the terminal flowering stems ascending or erect, 6 inches to a 

 foot liigh. Leaves narrow, cyUudrical, with a short point, and more or less 

 extended at the base below tlieir point of insertion into a short spur. Flowers 

 yellow, considerably larger than in the other British species, ibrming a ter- 

 minal cyme of 4 or 5 to 7 or 8 recurved branches, each bearing from 3 to 5 

 or 6 sessile flowers. Sepals short and ovate ; the petals twice as long and 

 linear. 



On old walls and stony places, in temperate and southern Europe, extend- 

 ing northwards to southern Sweden. In Britain, it is undoubtedly wild in 

 several of the southern and western counties of England and in Ireland, but 

 has besides estabhshed itself in many places where it has escaped trom cultiva- 

 tion. Fl. summer. Slight varieties have been distinguished under the 

 names of S. rejlexum (Eug. Bot. t. 695) and S. Forsterianum (Eng. Bot. 

 t. 1802), but tlie characters assigned, derived chiefly from the more or less 

 crowded, closely appressed or spreading leaves of the barren shoots, are very 

 difficidt to appreciate, and appear to depend more on station than on any 

 real difference in the plants. 



IV. HOUSEI.SEK. SEMPERVIVUM. 



Succulent herbs, with a perennial, often woody stock, usually larger and 

 coarser than tlie Sedums ; the thick, succulent leaves densely imbricated, on 

 the sliort, often globular, barren shoots, and scattered along the erect flow- 

 ering stems. Inflorescence and flowers as in Serfttw, except that the parts of 

 the flower are much more numerous, the sepals, petals, and carpels vary- 

 ing from 6 to 20 (usually 10 to 12). Stamens twice as many, but one half 

 occasionally abortive and very small, or sometimes transformed into extra 

 carpels. Tlie little scales placed under the carpels are toothed or jagged, or 

 sometimes wanting. 



Besides the common one, tliere are a few aUied species in central and 

 southern Europe, some half-shrubby ones in the Canary Islands, and several 

 in south-western Africa. Some of these have long been in cultivation among 

 our garden succulent plants. 



1. Conaiuon ZIouseleek. Sempervivuiu tectorum, Linn. 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1320.) 



The barren shoots form numerous, almost globular tufts, from whence, in 

 subsequent years, arise the stout, succulent flowering stems to the height of 

 about a foot. Leaves very thick and fleshy ; the lower ones 1 to 1^ inches 

 long, ending in a short point, and bordered by a line of short, stiti' hairs ; 

 the upper ones as well as the cymes more or less clothed with a short, viscid 

 down. Flowers pink, sessde along the spreading or recurved branches of 

 the cyme. Petals linear, pointed, two or three times as long as the sepals, 

 downy on the outside, and ciliate on the edges, hke the leaves. 



In rocky situations, in the great mountain-ranges of central and southern 

 Europe to the Caucasus, and having been very long cidtivated as a curio- 

 sity, it is widely spread over northern Em'ope, as an introduced plant, on 

 cottage-roofs and old walls. It is only under such circumstances tliat it is 

 to be met with in Britain. Fl. summer. 



