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Crassula (Latin thickish; referring to the thick leaves and stems). Crassulaceae. Fleshy and leafy greenhouse shrubs or herbs, grown for the grotesque appearance of some of the kinds and also for the bloom.
Variable in habit and foliage, mostly erect; rarely annual: lvs. opposite, usually sessile and often connate, fleshy, very entire and the margins sometimes cartilaginous, glabrous or pubescent or scaly: fls. usually small, white, rose or rarely yellow, commonly in cymes but sometimes capitate, usually 5-merous; calyx 5-parted, the lobes erect or spreading; petals 5, free or joined at the base, erect or spreading; stamens 5, shorter than the petals; carpels 5, many-ovuled.— Species 150 or more, mostly in S. Afr., but a few in Abyssinia and Asia. Many species have been intro. to cult., but only a few are actually grown outside of fanciers' collections. The rocheas sometimes pass as crassulas. See Rochea.
The genus Crassula gives the name to the order Crassulaceae, which contains many cultivated succulent plants, and also others of widely different habit. The order is closely related to the Saxifragaceae, but differs in having the carpels of the ovary entirely free and equal in number to the petals, but the formspass easily into the Saxifragacea; through Francoa and Tetilla, and back again through Triactina. The genera, as usually treated, are ill defined, and certain species of Sedum cross over the lines of Crassula, Cotyledon and Sempervivum, while between Crassula and Tillaea no very clear distinction can be made.
Crassulas are greenhouse plants requiring a dry atmosphere during the resting-period. While making growth, they may be treated like other greenhouse plants in the way of watering, placing them in the lightest and airiest part of the house. The pots must be drained so that any surplus moisture will easily pass through. The soil should consist of sand, loam, broken brick, and a very small quantity of leaf-soil or thoroughly rotted cow-manure. Propagation is usually from cuttings. Some of the species, such as C. falcata, do not give much material for this purpose, and they should, therefore, be headed over and the tops put in dry sand in the spring, allowing water only when they show signs of shriveling. The cut-over plants should be encouraged to make side shoots, which may be rooted after they are large enough. (G. W. Oliver.)
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