SICKLE CRASSULA 199 
SICKLE CRASSULA 
Natural Order CrassuLacex. Genus Crassula 
CRASSULA (from Latin, crassus, thick, from the leaves). A genus com- 
prising about one hundred and sixteen species of fleshy shrubs and 
herbs, mostly South African, and requiring greenhouse treatment in this 
country. The description of Rochea applies to Crassula, except that in 
the former genus the petals are united to form a tube, whilst in Crassula 
they are free throughout their length or united only at the base. 
From the commencement of the eighteenth century, 
when Crassulas began to be introduced from the Cape, we 
have kept up a very steady importation of new species from the same 
source every few years, and yet very few of the species are at all widely 
grown. We might indeed go further and say only one species is fairly 
well known—C. falcata. This is the most striking from the floral 
standpoint, but several others are worthy of cultivation, if only for their 
ornamental or grotesque appearance. C. perfoliata appears to have been 
the first introduced (1700), C. falcata ninety-five years later, with many 
others in between and since, one of the latest being C. alpestris (1878). 
CRASSULA ARBORESCENS (tree-like). Stems round, 
erect, 2 to 3 feet. The opposite leaves are flat and 
roundish, ending in a little hard point, glaucous, dotted above. Flowers 
large, rosy, in panicled cymes; May. 
C. Fatcata (sickle-leaved). Stems 3 to 8 feet high. Leaves thick, 
oblong, blunt- pointed, glaucous, bent somewhat in form of. sickle. 
Flowers bright crimson, occasionally white, in dense terminal corymbs ; 
June to September. Plate 94. 
Description of The upper portion of a flowering stem of Crassula 
Plate 94. falcata. Fig. 1 is a detached flower enlarged, Fig. 2 a 
section of the same. For cultural directions, see Rochea. 
History. 
Principal Species. 
COTYLEDONS 
Natural Order CrassuLacem. Genus Cotyledon 
CoTyLEDON (Greek, kotyle, a cup or cavity, from the hollowed leaves 
of some species). A genus of about sixty fleshy herbs or small shrubs. 
Leaves usually alternate, thick, fleshy. Flowers in terminal spikes or 
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