132 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
sent to Kew from Washington named rubricaule were indistinguishable 
in flower from ebracteatum) . 
Description. — A bright green, fleshy, soft, downy perennial, forming basal 
rosettes which shoot up, flower, and die in the following season. Rootstock 
horizontal, very fleshy, greenish, knotted with the round, flat scars of former 
stems above, bearing shortish, fleshy roots below. Stems of the barren shoots 
extremely short, bearing a loose rosette of leaves an inch across ; those of the 
flowering shoots a foot high, erect, stout, round, finely hairy, unbranched, green, 
or marked especially above with many short purple longitudinal lines, leafy. 
Leaves alternate, soft, very fleshy, downy on both sides, ovate, very broad at base, 
bluntly pointed at apex, flat on face, rounded on back, bright green ; those of 
the barren shoots crowded in a rosette, those of the flowering shoots patent or 
deflexed, clasping, exceeding the intemodes, an inch long. Inflorescence terminal, 
very lax, 2-3 inches long and broad, of 3 to 5 alternate axillary few-flowered 
almost bractless branches. Flowers sessile, whitish, J inch across. Buds ovate, 
very blunt. Sepals equal or nearly so, downy, very fleshy, ovate, divided half 
way down, rather acute, wide-spreading, more or less dotted with purple. Petals 
white with a greenish nerve, ovate, acute, patent, twice the sepals. Stamens 
erect, nearly equalling the petals, filaments white, anthers yellow. Scales ovate, 
blunt, fleshy, greenish, translucent. Carpels stout, erect, equalling the stamens, 
hollowed out behind the scales, styles short, whitish. 
Flowers October. Not hardy. 
Habitat. — Hidalgo, Mexico. 
Long in cultivation, though very rarely seen. Saunders figured it 
in 1 87 1 from specimens in his glass-houses, and gave plants to Kew. 
I owe my plant to the kindness of Dr. Rose and of the Director at 
Kew, where the species is still in cultivation ; received also from 
La Mortola, and seen in the Botanic Garden at Dresden. 
In " North American Flora " (loc. cit.) the sepals are described 
as " very unequal and leaf-Uke." This character is not mentioned or 
shown in the descriptions or figures of De Candolle, Hemsley, or 
" Refugium Botanicum," and in the living and dried specimens which 
I have examined the sepals are small, ovate, and regular. 
The name refers to the poor development of bracts on the 
inflorescence. 
47. Sedum rubricaule nov. comb. 
Sedastrum rubricaule Rose in " N. Amer. Flora," 22, 59, 1905. 
Description. — " Stems about 30 cm. high, somewhat pubescent, greenish 
below, purplish above. Basal rosettes dense ; leaves ovate, thick, rather obtuse ; 
stem-leaves acutish, bright green ; flowers on ultimate branches 3 or 4, sessile ; 
calyx green, cleft to near the middle ; petals broadly ovate, white ; stamens 
erect ; anthers yellowish ; carpels erect." — Rose, loc. cit. 
Habitat. — Mexico. Not hardy. 
Described by Rose from specimens which flowered in Washington 
in 1903. I do not know the plant ; specimens sent to Kew from Wash- 
ington which flowered in 1917 proved indistinguishable from S. ebrac- 
teatum, and there is little in the description to separate it from that 
species. The stems of rubricaule are stated to be more hairy and more 
suffused with purple than in its ally, and the leaves ovate instead of 
obovate or spathulate ; but according to the original description the 
leaves of 5. ebracteatum are ovate, and Hemsley describes them 
as oval-oblong. So far as I have had an opportunity of studying 
