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II. Remarks on the Sedum ochroleucum, or Αειζωον το μικρον of Dioscorides; in a Letter to Alexander MacLeay, Esq. Sec. Linn. Soc. By James Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S.
Read November 1, 1808.
Dear Sir,
I beg leave through your hands to welcome my brethren of the Linnean Society on their first meeting for the ensuing season, and to communicate at the same time an article of botanical intelligence rather interesting to those who are solicitous about natural genera, as well as to those who have endeavoured to ascertain the plants of ancient Greek authors.
Jacquin in his Hortus Vindobonensis, v. 1. 35. t. 81, has described and figured a plant by the name of Sempervivum sediforme, which subsequent compilers of botanic system have implicitly adopted by that name. It has even found its way into the Hortus Kewensis, v. 2. 149, being far from uncommon in the English gardens, where it flowers copiously every summer in the open ground. The excellent author above mentioned remarks, that "the appearance of its leaves" (he might have said its whole habit) "is that of a Sedum," but that "the flower has exactly the character of a Sempervivum, the petals being 6 or 7, with broad bases, and an equal number in the parts of the calyx, as well as the germens, and double the number of stamens." He also asserts that "there are no nectariferous scales."
The
