1. P. sedoìdes, L. Leaves lanceolate, acute at both ends.—Open wet places, N. Brunswick to Fla., west to Minn., E. Kan., and Tex. July–Oct. Parts of the flower rarely in sixes or sevens.
Sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils 3 or 4. Pods 2–many-seeded.—Very small tufted annuals, with opposite entire leaves and axillary flowers. (Named in honor of Michael Angelo Tilli, an early Italian botanist.)
1. T. símplex, Nutt. Rooting at the base (1–2´ high); leaves linear-oblong; flowers solitary, nearly sessile; calyx half the length of the (greenish-white) petals and the narrow 8–10-seeded pods, the latter with a scale at the base of each.—Muddy river-banks, Mass. to Md. July–Sept.
3. SÉDUM, Tourn. Stone-crop. Orpine.
Sepals and petals 4 or 5. Stamens 8 or 10. Follicles many-seeded; a little scale at the base of each.—Chiefly perennial, smooth, and thick-leaved herbs, with the flowers cymose or one-sided. Petals almost always narrow and acute or pointed. (Name from sedeo, to sit, alluding to the manner in which these plants fix themselves upon rocks and walls.)
[*] Flowers perfect and sessile, as it were spiked along one side of spreading flowering branches or of the divisions of a scorpioid cyme, the first or central flower mostly 5-merous and 10-androus, the others often 4-merous and 8-androus.
[+] Flowers white or purple.
1. S. pulchéllum, Michx. Stems ascending or trailing (4–12´ high); leaves terete, linear-filiform, much crowded; spikes of the cyme several, densely flowered; petals rose-purple.—Va. to Ga., west to Ky., E. Kan., and Tex.; also cultivated in gardens. July.
2. S. Névii, Gray. Stems spreading, simple (3–5´ high); leaves all alternate, those of the sterile shoots wedge-obovate or spatulate, on flowering stems linear-spatulate and flattish; cyme about 3-spiked, densely flowered; petals white, more pointed than in the next; the flowering 3 or 4 weeks later; leaves and blossoms smaller.—Rocky cliffs, mountains of Va. to Ala.