SOME SPECIES OF SALICORNIA 181 



two forms, as will be seen from the above citations, have received 

 several distinctive binomials ; but it is difficult to see how they 

 can be separated specifically. Duval-Jouve {o}). cit., p. 176), how- 

 ever, states that his S. Emerici has straight hairs, and he so 

 figures it; but no such annual Salicornia has come under my 

 notice as yet. 



S. europcsa is a comprehensive and very variable species ; but 

 it must be emphasized that these variations remain perfectly dis- 

 tinct from the other annual species. The latter are not comparable 

 with " species " of Bitbits or Hieracium, and are so distinct 

 (although local in their distribution), that to include them within 

 the limits of S. europaa {" S. herhacea") seems most unreasonable. 



S. eiiropcea, usually bright green in colour, is easily distin- 

 guished from the other species of the subsection by its long, often 

 very long (up to 5 cm. or more) flowering-spikes, which are 

 tapering and rather obtuse. Each spike has about 8-16 flowering- 

 segments, as a rule. The flowers are nearly equal in size, and 

 the central one reaches about two-thirds of the way up the 

 segment. Usually it has only one stamen, but occasionally a 

 second (which may or may not be rudimentary) is present. 



In addition to the European and Mediterranean localities, the 

 floras give South x\frica, Siberia, Central Asia, East Indies, and 

 America ; but some at least of these localities are quite untrust- 

 worthy. It is the only species of the genus which can at present 

 be recorded from Scotland and Ireland. In the British Isles, it 

 occurs as far north as the Orkneys and the Shetlands, and as far 

 south as the Isle of Wight. It occurs in the Channel Isles. It 

 is, in general, the " Salicornia herhacea " of botanists, who appear 

 to be content in this genus to distinguish subgenera and not 

 species. 



[S. INTERMEDIA Woods {op. cit.), 30, 1851 ! Woods briefly 

 described, under the name of S. intermedia, three erect Glass- 

 worts said to be most abundant on the muddy salt-marshes 

 of Sussex. One of the plants resembles S. pusilla, but has 

 much longer and redder spikes. The second approaches the 

 typical form of S. [europaa] herhacea in its yellowish green 

 colour, hardly tinged with red, and in its cylindrical spikes an 

 inch or more in length and eight or nine times their width ; but 

 it has not more than eight or nine " sets of seeds." The third, in 

 its bushy habit and colour, and in the form of its spikes, shows an 

 affinity with S. ramosissima. It is obvious that one binomial 

 cannot be retained for a medley of plants of such various origins 

 and affinities ; and the name S. intermedia, if used at all, should 

 be limited to the first of these three plants.] 

 6. Salicornia ramosissima. 



S. ramosissima Woods, op. cit., p. 29 (1851) ! 



This species occurs in the south of England, in the Channel 

 Islands, and in Brittany. It is the prevailing species on the 

 sandy salt-marsh at the Bouche d'Erquy. In a recent interesting 

 paper by Miss Delf (Ann. Bot., April, 1911), it is confused with 

 S. annua {— S. europcea). At Erquy, it is very polymorphic, in 



