292 



THE CRASSULA FAMILY. 



far the greater proportion form part of the Mesembryantliemnm and 

 Cactus families, which are entirely exotic. 



I. TILLfEA. TILLvEA. 



Very small annuals, with opposite leaves, and minute flowers in the 

 upper axils. Sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels 3 or 4. 



-Besides the European species, the genus contains several from North 

 America, central Asia, southern Africa, and Australia, most of them 

 amongst the smallest of flowering plants. 



1. Mossy Tillsea. Tillsea muscosa, Linn. (Fig. 356.) 



(Eng. Bot. t. 116.) 



The whole plant is seldom more than 

 2 inches high, and usually but an inch, 

 or even much less, although much 

 branched, and crowded with flowers ; it 

 is usually of a reddish colour, and slen- 

 der, though succulent. Leaves narrow- 

 lanceolate or linear. Flowers solitary 

 in each axil, or several together in little 

 clusters. Sepals lanceolate, pointed. 

 Petals minute and subulate. Carpels with 2 minute seeds in each. 



On moist, barren, sandy heaths and wastes, in western and southern 

 Europe, extending eastward round the Mediterranean, and northward 

 to the Netherlands. Has been found in several of the southern coun- 

 ties of England, but not in Ireland or Scotland. Fl. summer. 



Fig. 356. 



II. COTYLEDON. COTYLEDON. 



Herbs, or succulent shrubs, with scattered leaves (rarely opposite in 

 some exotic species), and flowers in terminal racemes or panicles. 

 Sepals 5, small. Petals combined into a single tubular or campanulate 

 corolla, with 5 teeth or divisions. Stamens 10, inserted at the base of 

 the corolla, but often adnate to the top of the tube. Carpels 5, each 

 with a scale at the base. 



Taking this genus in the sense in which it was understood by Lin- 

 naeus, it includes a considerable number of south-west African, besides 

 several south European and central Asiatic ones, which, with our 

 British species, are considered by some modern botanists as forming 

 a distinct genus under the name of Umbilicus. 



