ROCK-SAMPHIRE. 115 



On the occurrence of the Rock-Samphire, Criihmum 

 mariiimum, L., and the Marsh Helleborine Orchis, 

 Epipactis palustris, Crantz, on the West of Scotland. 



By Alex. Somerville, B.Sc., F.L.S. 



[Read 26th March, 1907.] 



It is of interest that we are able to bring before the Society 

 two plants, neither of them minute or inconspicuous, one of 

 them tall and striking, which, during the past summer, were 

 met with on the Island of Colonsay, one of the South Inner 

 Hebrides, where they proved to be practically additions to the 

 known flora of the West of Scotland. Of these, one is an 

 Umbelliferous Dicotyledon, and the other an Orchidaceous 

 Monocotyledon. 



We shall refer in the first place to the former, the Rock- 

 Samphire, Crithmum maritimum of Linnaeus, which has been 

 known as British since 1548, or for 360 years, a plant whose 

 habitat is rocks and rocky cliffs by the sea, and which has been 

 recorded hitherto from 26 out of the 112 vice-counties of Greut 

 Britain, only a single addition (that of East Suffolk) having 

 been made to their number since the issue of Topographical 

 Botany in 1883. 



Crithmum is a plant well distinguished by its long entire 

 fleshy leaflets, which are glaucous in appearance, cold to the 

 touch, and have an aromatic scent. 



The young leaves, gathered in May, make, when sprinkled 

 with salt and preserved in vinegar, the well-known pickled 

 condiment. From this we can gather that though Crithmum 

 belongs to the Hemlock Order, it is not in itself poisonous. 



The inflorescence, or arrangement of the flowers on the flower- 

 stalk, is, as will be seen from the specimens shown, a compound, 

 niany-rayed, flat-topped umbel, consisting of an assemblage of 

 small, stalked, yellowish-white flowers, with numerous bracts 

 and bracteoles; the fruits, known as cremocarps, having thick 

 primary ridges and many vittse; the whole plant differing much 

 from all the other British Umhelliferce, of which there are about 



seventy. 



A 



