MYRTLE 207 
are attached only by thread-like stems. Flowers with six or seven 
pale-yellow lance-shaped petals; in a dense panicle; June to August. 
S. TABULEFORME (table-shaped). Leaves spoon-shaped, fringed, 
‘closely packed in a flat rosette. Flowers pale sulphur-coloured, with 
ten to twelve narrow lance-shaped petals; June and Ju 
S. TEcTorUM (roof-haunting). Common Houseleek, or Jupiter's 
Beard. Flowering stem, 1 foot long, velvety. Leaves wedge-shaped- 
oval, with purple tip and fringed edges; fifty or sixty forming a 
rosette. Flowers nearly an inch across, petals dull purple, lance-shaped, 
fringed ; panicled; July. 
Sempervivums require no more special treatment 
than do Sedums. They all like a sandy soil, and they do 
not mind if it is hot and dry. Droughts have little terror for them. 
They are, therefore, very suitable for the driest coigns of rockwork 
old walls, old roofs, and so forth. The more tender greenhouse species 
must have some care taken of them during the winter, but in the 
middle of summer they may be turned out to decorate the beds or 
borders with advantage to both plants and beds. They are increased 
by seeds or divisions. Most of them produce offsets, and these, if 
separated, will soon send out independent roots and grow. Several of 
the species found in Madeira, i.e. S. arboreum, S. dorami, etc., are 
handsome greenhouse plants thriving in a strong loamy soil. 
Description of Sempervivum arachnoideum, the Cobweb Houseleek, 
Plate 99. is here shown of the natural size. Fig. 1 is a section, through 
a much-enlarged flower. 
Cultivation. 
MYRTLE 
Natural Order MyrtacE&. Genus Myrtus 
Myrtus (Myrtos, the old Greek name). An extensive genus comprising 
about one hundred species of stove and greenhouse trees or shrubs. 
They vary greatly in size, from the dwarf M. nwmmularia, which 
spreads along the ground in the Falkland Isles, to the 30-feet tree of 
M. coriacea. The leaves are opposite and feather-veined, in some cases 
fragrant. The flowers consist of a top-shaped calyx-tube with four or five 
lobes ; an equal number of spreading petals ; twice as many, or an indefinite 
number of stamens; an ovary one- to six-celled, with simple style and 
stigma. The fruit is a dry or fleshy berry. The species are distributed 
throughout Tropical, Extra - tropical, and Western South America, 
Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and the Mediterranean region. 
