Sedum

Orpine; Stone-crop; Live-long; Live-ever. In botany, a genus of the cla dec and ria, order pentagynia. Calyx five-cleft; corol five-petalled; nectariferous scales five, at the base of the germ capsules five, superior. ‘Twenty-nine species, chiefly natives of the | Levant, Spain, and Portugal. Nine common to the hedges, wet rocks, dry sands, or walls of our own country. This plant is very well known in many of its species, whether indigenous or exotic. ‘The following are those generally cultivated. 1. S. telephium. Orpine stone-crop. 2, S. an a comps eros. Ever-green stone-crop. 3. S. aizoon. Yellow stone-crop, 4. S. populifolium. Poplar-leaved stone- crop. 5. 5. stellatum. Starry stone-crop. 6. S. cepoea. Purslane-leaved stone-crop. 7. 8. dosypbyllum. Thick -leaved stone-_ crop. 8. S. reflexum. Recumbent stone-crop. g. 5S. rupestre. Rock stone-crop. 10. S. His panicum. Spanish stone-crop. 11. S. album. White stone-crop. 12. 3, acre, Biting stone-crop, or wall- pepper. 13. 5. sex an gule. Insipid stone-crop. 14. S. Anglicum. English or mild white stone-crop. 15. S. annuum. Annual stone-crop. All are hardy, herbaceous, succulent, pe- rennials in the root, though most of them an- nual in the stalk, which rising in the spring, flowers in June, July, and August: the flowers consisting universally of five spreading petals, generally crowning the stalks numerously in corymbs, cymes, and spikes, appearing tolerably conspicuous, and succeeded by a large quantity of seeds in the autumn, by which, as also by parting the roots, or by slips or cuttings, they may he easily propagated. As flower in plants they are mostly employed to embellish rock work and ruins, the roots being surrounded at first with a little mud, after which they will readily shoot into the adjoining crevices, Two or three of them are employed as salads in Holland. The wall-pepper is a strong stimulant; it blisters the skin when applied to it, and excites vomiting when eaten. It has been used with advantage in quartan agues and scorbutic affections. Goats eat it; cows, horses, sheep, and swine, refuse it. See ILLE- CEBRA, under which name it is best known in the dispensatories. 580