SEMPERYITUM. 
333 
into tlie crevices or fissures of bare subcoluinnar walls of basalt 
rock on which it chiefly loves to grow. St. none or very short 
and conical, the whole pi. consisting of a single sessile radical 
flat or slightly concave orbicular disk or rosette of horizontally 
and regularly imbricated close-pressed 1., from 3 or 4 to 12 or 
more in. in diam., like a plate or shallow saucer and of a bright 
full not at all glaucous gr. L. very closely and compactly imbri- 
cated, gradually enlarging from the centre, fleshy, very variable 
in degree of pubescence and viscidity, ranging from scarcely more 
than pubendous to velvety-pubescent, minutely downy on both 
sides but especially beneath, the hairs often viscid, and the edges 
sometimes regularly sometimes scarcely perceptibly or only here 
and there ciliate with distinct or subremote short white sub- 
pellucid somewhat cartilaginous mostly capitate or clavate glands 
or setulce, mostly viscid more or less all over and not particularly 
at the margins ; the outer spathulate-wedgeshaped, very obtuse 
or truncate and retuse with a small point; the inner rhomboidal- 
wedgeshaped or broadly ovate. When about to flower (in June), 
the central 1. rise into a little mamilliform cup, and the pi. assumes 
exactly the appearance of a cup and saucer. As the low short 
bushy fl.-stem rises from the centre of this cup, all the 1. become 
presently flaccid and loosely deflexed, falling off altogether as 
the fl. advance. The fl.-stem grows very rapidly, and within a 
month or six weeks from its first appearance the whole pi. dries 
up and perishes. It is very rarely but still occasionally sobo- 
liferous, producing one or two globose leaf-bulbs or offsets on 
short strings or runners from below the leaf-disk. Fl.-stem 
short rarely more than 6 or 8 in. high thick fleshy and with its 
branches pale straw or flesh-colour, the whole glandulose -pu- 
bescent almost villous. Corymb candelabriform large and bushy 
with numerous long spreading or declining naked side-branches, 
each ending in a cymose panicle. Fl. secund large and hand- 
some, of a rather pale golden-y. in Mad., of a fuller darker v., 
tinged outside with red, in P t0 S t0 . Pet. mostly 12 or 13 rarely 
15, rather short 4 lines long, 1| broad, lanceolate or ovate-lan- 
ceolate acute. Stam. in a double row about f length of pet. ; 
anth., pollen and fil. bright y. Hypog. glands y. broadly spa- 
thulate or wedgeshaped retuse rather than notched. 
W hen the sun shines hot upon a rock or cliff covered with 
these pi., they fill the air with a delicious balsamic fragrance 
like that of ripe nectarines or peaches. 
Though erroneously described originally in HK. as “ fru- 
tescent,” and though no authentic spec, remains to verify the 
reference, the more exact identification of the other Mad. and 
Can. sp. within the last few years almost necessitates the recog- 
nition of S. glandulosum Ait. in this most abundant and uni- 
