CEASSULACEiE. 



295 



2. Orpine Sedum. Sedum Telephium, Linn. (Fig. 359.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 1319. S. purpureum, Bab. Man. Orpine. Livelong.) 



Rootstock perennial, the annual stems 

 hard, erect, simple, about a foot high or 

 rather more. Leaves scattered, obovate 

 or oblong, and coarsely toothed ; the 

 lower ones 2 inches long or even more, 

 and much narrowed or even stalked at 

 the base ; the upper ones often rounded 

 at the base. Flowers numerous, purple 

 in the British variety, forming a hand- 

 some corymb at the top of the stem. 

 Sepals 5, short and pointed. Petals 

 more than twice as long. Stamens 10, 

 rather shorter than the petals. 



On the borders of fields, hedgebanks, 

 and bushy places, in northern and central 

 Europe and Knssian Asia, chiefly con- 

 fined to hilly districts in the more south- 

 ern portion of its area. Occurs in most 

 of the British counties, but has been so 

 long cultivated in cottage gardens, and is so tenacious of life, that it is 

 difficult to say how far it is really indigenous. Fl. summer, rather late. 



Fig. 359. 



3. English Sedum. Sedum anglicum, Huds. (Fig. 380.) 

 (Eng. Bot. t. 171.) 



A small perennial, seldom more than 

 3 inches high, and quite glabrous in all 

 its parts ; the stems decumbent and 

 much branched at the base, with short, 

 thick, almost globular leaves, crowded 

 on the short barren branches, more 

 loosely scattered and occasionally oppo- 

 site on the flowering ones. Flowers 

 white, occasionally tinged with pink, in 

 a short, irregular cyme. Sepals short 

 and green. Petals more than twice as 

 long, lanceolate, and more or less 

 pointed. 



In rocky or stony places, usually not far from the sea, in western 

 Europe, from Portugal to southern Norway, ascending also high into 

 the mountains of the south-west. Abundant along the western coast 



Fig. 360. 



