172 CRASSTJLACE^E. (ORPINE FAMILY.) 



3. SEDUM, Tourn. Stone-crop. Orpine. 



Sepals and petals 4 or 5. Stamens 8 or 1 0. Pods many-seeded ; a little scale 

 at the base of each. — Chiefly perennial, smooth, and thick-leaved herbs, with 

 the flowers cymose or one-sided. Petals almost always narrow and acute or 

 pointed. (Name from sedeo, to sit, alluding to the manner in which these plants 

 fix themselves upon rocks and walls.) 



* Flowers perfect and sessile, as it were spiked along one side of spreading flowering 



branches or of the divisions of a scorpioid cyme, the first or central flower mostly 

 5-merous and 10-androus, the others often 1- nitrous and 8-androus. 



1. S. Acre, L. (Mossy Stone-crop.) Spreading on the ground, moss 

 like; leaves very small, alternate, almost imbricated on* the branches, ovate, 

 very thick ; petals yellow. — Escaped from cultivation to rocky roadsides, &c. 

 July. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. S. pulchelllim, Michx. Stems ascending or trailing (4'- 12' high) ; 

 leaves terete, linear-filiform, much crowded ; spikes of the cyme several, densely 

 flowered ; petals rose-purple. — Virginia to S. Illinois, Kentucky, and southward ; 

 also cultivated in gardens. July. 



3. S. Nevii, Gray. Stems spreading, simple (3' -5' high) ; leaves all alter- 

 nate, those of the sterile shoots wedge-obocate or spatulate, on flowering stems lin- 

 ear-spatulate and flattish ; cyme about 3-spiked, densely flowered ; petals white, 

 more pointed than in the next; the flowering 3 or 4 weeks later; leaves and 

 blossoms smaller. — Mountains of Virginia ( Salt Pond Mountain, W. M. Can- 

 by) to Alabama (R. D. Nevius). 



4. S. tematum, Michx. Stems spreading (3' -6' high); leaves flat; the 

 lower whorled in threes, wedge-obovate, the upper scattered, oblong ; cyme 3-spiked, 

 leafy ; petals white. — Rocky woods, Penn. to Illinois and southward : common 

 in gardens. May, June. 



* * Flowers in a terminal naked and regular cyme or cluster, more or less ped uncled: 



leaves flat, obovate or oblong, mostly alternate. 



•*- Flowers perfect, 5-merous, 10-androus. 



5. S. telephioides, Michx. Stems ascending (6' -12' high), stout, leafy 

 to the top ; leaves oblong or oval, entire or sparingly toothed ; cyme small ; 

 petals flesh-color, ovate-lanceolate, taper-pointed ; pods tapering into a slender style. 

 — Dry rocks, Alleghany Mountains, from Maryland southward, and sparingly 

 in New Jersey 1 W. New York ? and Indiana. June. — Too near the next. 



6. S. Telephium, L. (Garden Orptne or Live-por-ever.) Stems 

 erect (2° high), stout; leaves oval, obtuse, toothed; cymes compound; petals 

 purple, oblong-lanceolate; pods abruptly pointed with a short style. — Kocks and 

 banks, escaped from cultivation in some places. July. (Adv. from Eu.) 



■*- -•- Flowers dioecious, mostly 4-mnvns and 8-androus. 



7. S. Rhodiola, DC. (Roseroot.) Stems erect (5'- 10' high) ; leaves 

 oblong or oval, smaller than in the preceding ; flowers in a close cyme, greenish- 

 yellow, or the fertile turning purplish. — Pennsylvania, on cliffs of Delawar 

 River, below Easton ! {Professors Porter Sr Green) ; Qnoddv Head, Maine (Proj 

 Verrill), and northward. May, June. (Eu.) 



