Sedum. | XXX. ORASSULACEZ. 163 
guished under the name of 8. Forsterianum, Sm., but the characters assigned, 
derived chiefly from the more or less crowded, closely appressed or spread- 
ing 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. Reflexed-leaved Stonecrop.—Very near S. 
rupestre, but usually larger, with crowded cylindric leaves ending in a subu- 
late tip, and larger pedicelled often brateate flowers. 
On rocks and housetops in northern and middle Europe, extending spar- 
ingly to England, Wales, and Ireland, but often an escape or relic of culti- 
vation, 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 transformed 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 cultivation 
among our garden succulent plants. 
1, S.tectorum, Linn, (fig. 369). Common Houseleek.—The barren 
shoots form numerous, almost globular tufts, from whence, in subsequent 
years, arise the stout, succulent flowering stems to the height ofabout a foot. 
Leaves very thick and fleshy ; the lower ones 1 to 14 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, two or three times as long as the sepals, downy on the out- 
side, and ciliate on the edges, like the leaves. 
In rocky situations, in the great mountain ranges of central and southern 
Europe to the Caucasus, and having been very long cultivated as a curiosity, 
it is widely-spread over northern Europe, as an introduced plant, on cottage- 
roofs and old walls. Itis only under such circumstances that it is to be 
met with in Britain. Fl. summer, 
XXXI. RIBESIACEA, THE RIBES FAMILY. 
This family is identical with the Linnean genus Rzbves, and 
nearly allied to the exotic shrubby genera of Sawxzifragacee, 
but maintained as distinct on account of the succulent fruit 
with parietal placentas, and the union of the styles at the base, 
indicating some approach to the Cactacece, 
= Mee 
