ACCOUNT OF GENUS SEDUM AS FOUND IN CULTIVATION. 211 
below, leafy near the tips ; branches wide-spreading. Leaves alternate, set at right 
angles to the stem, green and shining, flat, very fleshy, lanceolate-spathulate, 
entire, rounded or bluntly pointed at apex, narrowed below, sessile, flat on face, 
rather rounded on back, often curving upward, 2 to 2| inches long, ^ to f inch 
broad. Inflorescence a much-branched, lax, panicled cyme, 3 to 4 inches long and 
broad. Buds ovate, rather acute, f inch long. Flowers subsessile, f inch across. 
Sepals green, fleshy, blunt, ovate-lanceolate, twice as long as broad. Petals 
bright-yellow, patent, narrowly lanceolate, very acute, 4 to 5 times the sepals. 
Stamens spreading, yellow, f the petals. Scales minute, yellow. Carpels yellow, 
erect, later spreading, equalling the stamens, tapering into the styles, spreading 
in fruit. 
Flowers May-June (in the open). Hardy in the milder parts 
of the British Isles. 
Habitat. — Mexico. Described by De Candolle over seventy 
years ago from cultivated specimens, and still widely grown in Europe. 
It is a common cottage-window plant in Ireland and parts of England 
and Scotland. In gardens it is usually called 5. dendroideum ; some- 
times S. confusum or S. giganteum. Though now widespread in 
Europe, it appears to have been lost sight of in America. Dr. Rose 
(loc. cit.) merely repeats Hemsley's description, and doubts the validity 
of the species. It is, however, a well-marked and quite distinct 
plant. 
The name (praealtus — very high) refers to its tall growth, which 
Hemsley sets down at 5 to 6 feet ; but in these countries it never 
attains even half that height. 
96. Sedum confusum Hemsley (fig. 11% 121). 
5. confusum Hemsley, "Diagnoses Plant. Nov.," 1, 10, 1878. Hemsley, 
"Biol. Centr. Amer., Bot.," 1, 393. " N. Amer. Flora," 22, 70. 
Illustration. — Saunders' " Refug. Botan.," 5, pi. 337. 
Synonym. — S. spathuli folium Biker in Saunders' "Refug. Botan.," loc. cit. 
(not of Hooker, see p. 238). 
The third member of the well-marked dendroideum group of 
shrubby Mexican Sedums. 5. confusum is the smallest of the three, 
and differs from praealium in its smaller, broader leaves, i to i| inches 
(not 2 to 2j inches) long, twice (not 3 to 4 times) as long as broad, 
semi-elliptic (not pointed) at the apex, inflorescence smaller and 
denser (about 2 inches instead of 4 inches long and broad), petals 
broader (3, not 4 times as long as broad). 5. dewiroideum differs 
in its taller stiff er growth, stalked leaves, &c. (see figs. Ii8, 119). 
Description. — A glabrous, evergreen, shrubby perennial, forming a bush a 
foot high and wide. Stem woody below, round, smooth, often reddish, much 
branched ; branches ascending. Leaves alternate, longer than the intemodes, 
flat, fleshy, bright green, shining, obovate-spathulate, i to inches long, usually 
semi-elliptic at apex (sometimes with a very blunt point), cuneate below, sessile, 
face with a median V-shaped groove with well-marked edges near the base, back 
paler with a slightly raised median ridge. Inflorescence terminal, compact, 
to 2 inches long and broad, C)nnose-paniculate ; bracts linear, very fleshy, few. 
Buds ovate, bluntly pointed. Flowers yellow, ^ to f inch across, on very short 
pedicels to \ inch) . Sepals yellowish green, very fleshy, ovate, blunt, nearly 
twice as long as broad, limb exceeding the tube. Petals patent or reflexed, ovate- 
lanceolate, acute, channelled, 3 times as long as broad. Staviens yellow, * the 
petals. Scales small, roundish, notched, yellow. Carpels lanceolate, greenish 
yellow, slightly spreading, with short erect styles ; wide-spreading in fruit. 
