There are several kinds of Dudleya; perennials, very thick and fleshy;
root-leaves in a conspicuous rosette, stem-leaves mostly bract-like,
usually with a broad, clasping base; flowers mostly yellow or reddish;
calyx conspicuous, with five lobes; petals united at base; stamens ten.
Most of these plants grow in the South, often on rocks, in such shallow
soil, that they would die in dry weather, except that the juicy leaves
retain their moisture for a long time and nourish the plant. They
resemble Sedum in appearance, but as the petals are more or less united
the flowers are not starlike. The Indians make poultices out of the
leaves.
[Sidenote: =Hen-and-Chickens=
_Dúdleya Nevadénsis (Cotyledon)_
=Orange-red
Summer
California=]
The succulent, reddish flower-stalks of this handsome plant bear
large, loose, rather flat-topped clusters of orange-red flowers,
on coiling branches, and are about a foot tall, with scaly bracts,
springing from a large handsome rosette on the ground of very thick,
pale-green leaves, often tinged with pink. Other smaller rosettes form
a circle around it, hence its nice little common name. _D. pulverulénta
(Echeveria)_ is beautiful but weird-looking. It has red flowers, and
the rosette, resembling a small Century-plant, is covered all over with
a white powder which, among ordinary herbage, gives an exceedingly
striking and ghostlike effect. This plant is sometimes a foot and a
half across, with as many as eight, tall stalks, and is found from San
Diego to Santa Barbara.
[Illustration: Hen-and-Chickens--Dudleya Nevadensis.]