THE STONECROP FAMILY 
[ORDER XXVIII. CRASSULACE.E] 
HE Stonecrop Family has one marked characteristic which separates it from all other orders 
represented in the British Isles. The leaves and stalks are always thick and fleshy, and the 
plants live and thrive in the airiest situations, on rocks, walls, and roofs, exposed to the direct rays 
of the sun. As a matter of fact, these fleshy leaves and stems are composed of cells, filled with 
liquid food, which has been taken in in wet weather, so in time of drought the plant lives on itself. 
The starry flowers have their sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels all equal in number, except when 
there are twice the number of stamens ; and the carpels never unite, but form a ring of small fruits 
(follicles). It is a large family, members of which are found all over the world, especially in South 
Africa, where they grow in dry situations in which only such fleshy plants can live. In Teneriffe 
the House-Leek (Sempervivum) grows in prodigal luxuriance, a blaze of yellow over rocks, cliffs, 
and old houses when in flower. 
Many Stonecrops and House-Leeks are used in our gardens to cover stones and walls. 
TILL/EA. — Flowers minute, white or rose-colour, growing singly or in small clusters in the axils 
of the leaves at the top of the stems. Sepals 3 or 4, united at the base ; petals 3 or 4, not 
united (free) ; stamens 3 or 4; carpels 3 or 4, not united, each with a seedcase terminating 
in a short style, on the inner surface of which at the top is the stigma. Fruit of 3 or 4 follicles 
together, each 2- or many-seeded, opening down the inner surface. Very small herbs, with entire, 
opposite leaves. 
Mossy Tillsea. (Tillssa muscosa, Linn.) — The only British species (as just described). 
Flowers very minute and numerous, solitary in the axils of the leaves. Sepals 3, pointed, reddish ; 
petals 3, white ; stamens 3 ; carpels 3. Fruit 3 follicles together, each having 2 minute seeds. 
Stems \-2 inches long, prostrate, much branched, slender, without hairs, reddish, and crowded 
with flowers ; the leaves entire and opposite. 
Rare. Sandy places in the south and south-east of England. June — July. Annual. 
PENNYWORT. (COTYLEDON, LINN.) — Flowers bell-shaped (campanulate) or tubular, in 
terminal clusters, sometimes spike-like (racemes). Sepals 5, united at the base ; petals 5, united 
into a bell-shaped or tube-like corolla with 5 teeth ; stamens xo, inserted on the base of the corolla- 
tube, to w'hich they adhere. Carpels 5, not united. Fruit of 5 follicles, many-seeded, opening down 
the inner surface. Herbs or shrubs, with alternate fleshy leaves. 
Wall Pennywort. (Cotyledon Umbilicus, Linn.)— The only British species (as just 
described). The numerous flow r ers shortly stalked, tubular, drooping, yellowish-green, in a 
spike-like cluster (raceme); the stem 6-12 inches high, erect, simple or slightly branched at 
the base, thick and fleshy ; and the leaves of the root (radical) and lower stem on long stalks, 
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