(^ PENTANDRIA DIGYNIA. Salsola. 



olan individual however inclined to promote the public 

 good, can avail but little, when not powerfully and cor- 

 dially assisted by Government. The Spanish ministry 

 sensible of the value of that branch of commerce, has pro- 

 hibited the exportation of the seed of their best Barilla 

 plant, under the strongest penalties. 



2. S. indica. Willd. 1. 1317. 



Perennial, erect. Leaves linear, acute, semicylindrical, 

 fleshy. Spikes panicled, leaf bearing. 



Teling. Ella-kura. 



With C. prostratum, SaJicorniaSy &c. a native of the 

 salt moist ground near the sea. It flowers during the 

 most part of the year. 



Stem woody, perennial, erect, very short, almost im- 

 mediately branching out into many diffuse, alternate ra- 

 mifications which sometimes rest on the ground, but in 

 general they are sufiiciently strong to support themselves. 

 Young branchlets erect. Leaves scattered round every 

 part of the branchlets, erect, approximate, sessile, li- 

 near, semicylindric, fleshy, smooth ; half an inch long, 

 and one-twelfth broad. In young plants, green, in older, 

 coloured. Floral leaves shorter, and thicker. Spikes ter- 

 minal, erect, compound, or panicled, glomerate, leafy. 

 Flowers small, collected at the axills of the floral leaves. 

 Cahjx five-leaved ; leaflets outwardly semicylindric, with- 

 in concave ; margins slightly membranaceous. Styles 

 two, or to near the base two-cleft, hairy. Stamens shorter 

 than the calyx. Anthers globular, two-lobed. Seed hori- 

 zontal, beaked, enclosed in a tender membrane, which is 

 enveloped by the succulent calyx. 



The green leaves of this species are universally eaten by 

 all classes of natives wholive near the sea, where it is to 

 be had ; it is reckoned very wholesome, and must be so, as 

 during times of scarcity and famine, it is a very essential 

 article of the food of the poor natives ; they dress it in their 



