162 THE CRASSULA FAMILY. [Sedum. 



9. S. rupestre, Linn. (fig. 369). Rock S. — Stock perennial and 

 creeping, with numerous short barren shoots, 1 to 3 inches long ; the 

 terminal flowering stems ascending or erect, 6 inches to a foot high. 

 Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute, flattened, and more or less extended 

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

 yellow, considerably larger than in the other British species, forming 

 a terminal 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 

 extending northwards to southern Sweden. In Britain, it is un- 

 doubtedly wild in several of the southern and western counties of 

 England, Wales, and in Ireland, but has besides established itself in 

 many places where it has escaped from cultivation. Fl. summer. A 

 slight variety has been distinguished under the name of S. Forsterianum, 

 Sm. , but the characters assigned, derived chiefly from the more or less 

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

 are very difficult to appreciate, and appear to depend more on station 

 than on any real difference in the plants. 



[10. S. reflexum, Linn. (fig. 370). Reflexed-leaved S.— Very near 

 S. rupestre, but usually larger, with crowded cylindric leaves ending in 

 a subulate tip, and larger pedicelled often bracteate flowers. 



On rocks and housetops in northern and middle Europe, extending 

 sparingly to England, Wales, and Ireland, but often an escape or relic of 

 cultivation, especially a garden form which has reflexed green leaves on 

 the flowering shoots ; whilst the truly wild form, S. glaucum, Sm., found 

 in Suffolk and Devon, has glabrous leaves, erect or spreading, and paler 

 flowers. ] 



IV. SEMPERVIVUM. HOUSELEEK. 



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

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

 on the short, often globular, barren shoots, and scattered along the erect 

 flowering stems. Inflorescence and flowers as in Sedum, except that 

 the parts of the flower are much more numerous, the sepals, petals, and 

 carpels varying from 6 to 20 (usually 10 to 12). Stamens twice as many, 

 but one half occasionally abortive and very small, or sometimes trans- 

 formed into extra carpels. The little scales placed under the carpels 

 are toothed or jagged, or sometimes wanting. 



Besides the common one, there are a few allied specimens 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 culti- 

 vation among our garden succulent plants. 



1. S. teetorum, Linn. (fig. 371). Houseleeh — 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, stiff hairs ; the upper 

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

 Flowers pink, sessile along the spreading or recurved branches of the 

 cyme. Petals linear, pointed, 2 or 3 times as long as the sepals, downy 

 on the outside, and ciliate on the edges, like the leaves. 



